POLITICAL    ECONOMY: 


OBJECTS,  USES,  AND  PRINCIPLES: 


CONSIDERED     WITH      REFERENCE     TO     THE     CON- 
DITION    OF     THE     AMERICAN      PEOPLE. 


WITH   A   SUMMARY,   FOR   THE    USE   OF    STUDENTS. 


A   Libre 

x^.E%-^tj 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  82  CLIFF-STREET. 


1840. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New-York. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THIS  volume  consists  of  four  parts. 

The  fast  part,  entitled  Preliminary  Chapter,  dis- 
cusses the  Object,  Uses,  and  History  of  Political 
Economy. 

The  second  part  is  an  exposition  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  science,  in  connexion  with 
various  questions  of  practical  interest. 

The  third  part,  or  Supplementary  Chapter,  is  a 
special  application  of  these  principles  to  the  condi- 
tion of  labouring  men  in  the  United  States. 

The  fourth  part  is  a  brief  Summary  of  the  same 
principles  for  convenient  reference,  and  especially 
for  the  use  of  students  in  seminaries  of  learning. 

The  second  part  is  substantially  a  reprint  of  the 
first  ten  chapters  of  Scrope's  Political  Economy,  a 
work  published  in  England  in  1833  by  G.  Poulett 
Scrope,  Esq.,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons,  and  well  known  in  his  own  country  as  an 
able  writer  on  Currency,  Taxation,  &c.  In  adopt- 
ing that  portion  of  the  work  which  contains  the  el- 
ements of  the  science,  it  was  found  necessary  to 
abridge  a  few  chapters,  to  enlarge  others,  and  to 
modify  various  statements  of  the  author,  in  order 
A2 


VI  ADVERTISEMENT. 

either  to  adapt  them  to  the  meridian  of  this  coun- 
try, or  to  make  them  more  consonant  with  the  ed. 
itor's  views  of  truth.  So  many  alterations  of  this 
kind  have  been  hazarded,  that  they  could  not,  with, 
out  inconvenience,  nor  without  some  appearance 
of  pedantry,  be  specified  in  notes ;  and  hence  the 
alternative  has  been  taken  of  issuing  the  work 
without  the  name  of  Mr.  Scrope  in  the  title-page, 
that  he  may  not  be  held  responsible  for  doctrines 
which  he  does  not  teach.  Wherever  it  has  been 
found  expedient,  instead  of  altering  the  text,  to  add 
a  note,  that  course  has  been  adopted,  and  the  note 
designated  by  the  abbreviation  (Ed.). 

The  three  remaining  parts  of  the  volume  are  from 
the  pen  of  the  editor. 

Two  objects  have  been  kept  in  view  in  prepa- 
ring this  work  :  first,  to  provide  a  treatise  for  gen- 
eral readers,  adapted  to  the  times,  and  especially 
to  the  wants  of  our  country,  which  should  not  be 
encumbered  unnecessarily  with  controversial  mat- 
ter  or  with  abstract  discussions  ;  secondly,  to  fur- 
nish a  cheap  and  convenient  manual  for  seminaries, 
in  which  larger  and  more  expensive  text-books 
could  not  well  be  used,  or  in  which  it  might  be 
thought  desirable  to  confine  the  student's  attention 
to  such  doctrines  as  are  best  established  and  most 
generally  useful. 

This  volume  will  probably  be  followed  by  an- 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Vll 


other,  in  which  the  subjects  of  Pauperism,  Taxa- 
tion, Currency,  Banking,  and  Trade  will  be  dis- 
cussed, with  direct  reference  to  the  state  and  pros- 
pects  of  our  own  country. 

The  editor  takes  this  opportunity  of  acknowl- 
edging his  obligations,  while  preparing  this  volume, 
to  a  learned  and  valued  friend,  Professor  Tell- 
kampf,  late  of  the  University  of  Gottingen,  but 
now  of  Union  College.  Besides  many  valuable 
suggestions,  this  gentleman  has  contributed  an  Es- 
say on  Currency  and  Banking,  which  will  be  in- 
serted in  a  future  volume. 


CONTENTS. 

PRELIMINARY  CHAPTER Page  13 

CHAPTER  I. 

Definition  of  the  Science.— The  Study  of  the  Happiness  of  So- 
cieties so  far  as  it  depends  on  the  Abundance  and  Distribu- 
tion of  their  Wealth. — Its  Principles  capable  only  of  Moral, 
not  Mathematical  Proof 51 

CHAPTER  II. 

Definition  of  Wealth  and  of  Labour.— All  Labour  productive. 
— Labour  rather  a  Pleasure  than  a  Sacrifice :  must,  however, 
be  free,  and  sufficiently  remunerated. — Minimum  of  sufficient 
Remuneration. — Wealth  no  certain  measure  of  Happiness. — 
Test  proposed 54 

CHAPTER  III. 

Conditions  of  the  Production  of  Wealth. — The  Institution  of 
private  Property. — Labour. — Land. — Capital  .  .  .69 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Labour. — Exchanges  of  its  Produce. — Right  to  Free  Exchange. 
— Division  of  Labour. — Its  Advantages. — Co-operation  and 
mutual  Dependance  of  all  Labourers. — Barter. — Money. — Its 
use. — Coin. — Credit. — General  use  of  .  .  .76 

CHAPTER  V. 

Wages. — Ample  and  continually  increasing  Wages  secured  to 
Labourers  by  the  Principles  of  Free  Labour  and  Free  Ex- 
change.— Inequality  of  Wages  in  different  Employments  and 
of  different  Individuals. — Ability,  even  of  the  lowest  Class, 
increases,  and  its  Reward  ought  to  rise  proportionately,  with 
the  Progress  of  Civilization  .  .  .  .  .  .92 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Land. —Its  Appropriation  essential  to  Production.-— History  and 
Causes  of  its  Appropriation  in  different  Ages  and  Countries.— 
In  the  East  by  the  Sovereign.— In  Europe  by  the  Aristocracy. 
—In  America  by  the  People.— Influence  of  these  different 
Systems  on  Production  and  National  Welfare.  —  Natural 
Laws  of  Property  in Page  102 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CAPITAL. 

The  Result  of  previous  Labour— Not  affixed  to  Land— Nor  in- 
corporated with  Human  Ability— Nor  reserved  for  private 
Consumption — But  employed,  or  reserved  for  Employment, 
in  Production,  with  a  View  to  Profit  from  sale  of  its  Produce. 
— Necessity  of  so  restricting  the  Meaning  of  the  Term. — 
Utility  of  Capital.— Profit  on  Capital.— Nature  of  Profit,  and 
Natural  Right  to  its  Enjoyment.— Mistaken  Views  of  those 
who  declaim  against  the  Profits  of  Capital.— Fixed  and  Cir- 
culating Capitals.— Elements  of  Profit.— Net  Profit,  or  Inter- 
est of  Money.— Inequality  of  Gross  Profits.— Equality  of  Net 
Profit  in  the  same  Country 123 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

VALUE. 

Value  necessarily  Relative.— No  real  Value.— General  Value.-— 
Means  "  Purchasing  Power." — Elements  of  Value. — Monop- 
oly.—Costs  of  Production. — Rent,  the  Result  of  Monopoly. — 
Does  not  enter  into  Price.— Distinction  between  good  and  bad 
Monopolies. — Demand  and  Supply. — Their  Variations  and  re- 
ciprocal Action. — Cost  of  Production. — Consists  in  Labour, 
Capital,  Time,  Monopoly,  and  Taxation. — Competition  of  Pro- 
ducers, by  which  Supply  and  Demand  are  kept  nearly  Level. 
— Different  Investments  of  Capital  and  Labour.— Partial  Glut. 
— General  Glut  impossible,  except  through  a  Scarcity  of 
Money  .  .  .  ...  .  .  .  .149 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  IX. 

DISTRIBUTION    OF   WEALTH. 

Natural  and  necessary  Inequality  of  Conditions  and  Property. 
— Adventitious  Advantages. — Natural  Right  of  Succession  to 
Property  by  Will  or  Inheritance. — Variety  of  Conventional 
Rules. — Test  of  their  Equity. — Natural  Distribution  of  new 
Wealth— among  Labourers,  Land-owners,  and  Capitalists — 
can  be  determined  only  by  the  Principle  of  free  Exchange.-— 
The  same  Principle  tends  to  the  greatest  Increase  of  distribu- 
table Produce. — Limitation  of  Interference  of  Government  to 
the  securing  of  Persons  and  Property  .  .  .  Page  195 

CHAPTER  X. 

PRODUCTIVE   INTERESTS. 

Agriculture.  —  Manufactures.  —  Commerce. — Progress,  Subdi- 
visions, and  Utility  of  each. — Their  community  of  Interest, 
and  equal  Importance. — Preference  awarded  to  Agriculture, 
owing  to  the  unnatural  existing  relations  of  Population  and 
Subsistence 210 

SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTER 233 

SUMMARY  OP  PRINCIPLES         .  ....  303 


IN  entering  upon  any  department  of  Learning, 
it  is  desirable,  in  the  first  place,  to  form  some  no- 
tion  of  its  precise  Object  and  Uses,  as  well  as  of 
its  past  History  and  present  State.  To  meet  this 
want  is  the  aim  of  the  present  chapter. 

I.    OBJECT   OF   POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

This  branch  of  science  proposes  to  investigate 
the  laws  which  regulate  the  PRODUCTION  and  DISTRI- 
BUTION of  property  in  a  nation,  and  from  these  laws 
to  deduce  practical  rules  for  the  guidance  of  a  peo- 
ple both  in  their  private  pursuits  and  in  respect  to 
legislation.  It  forms  one  department  of  the  more 
general  science  of  Politics.  It  considers  men  in 
society  as  occupied  in  acquiring  property,  and  it 
proposes  to  explain  the  principles  by  which  they 
are  governed  in  this  pursuit,  the  causes  which  most 
contribute  to  their  success,  and  the  influence  of  such 
success  on  their  general  welfare.  It  begins  by  as- 
suming that  property  is  not  only  a  legitimate  object 
of  desire,  but  also  a  most  powerful  agent  in  the 
work  of  civilization  ;  that  it  owes  its  existence,  in 
all  cases,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  human  skill  and 
industry  co-operating  with  nature  ;  and  that  it  be- 
comes of  the  highest  importance,  therefore,  to  as- 
certain  in  what  way  such  skill  and  industry  can 
B 


14  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

be  rendered  most  effective  and  useful.  These  are 
preliminary  truths,  each  of  which  merits  elucida- 
tion. We  have  only  room,  however,  in  this  place, 
to  commend  them  to  the  notice  and  reflection  of 
the  reader. 

II.    USES   OF    POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

At  first  sight  there  would  appear  to  be  little, 
if  any,  occasion  for  such  a  science.  All  men  know 
that  industry  and  economy  are  the  conditions  on 
which  alone,  as  a  general  rule,  individuals  can 
hope  to  acquire  property  ;  and  it  may  be  said  that 
what  is  obvious  in  respect  to  individuals,  is  riot  less 
obvious  in  respect  to  communities,  which  are  made 
up  of  individuals.  Where  the  people  are  all  indus- 
trious in  creating  value,  and  where  they  are  care- 
ful, from  year  to  year,  to  consume,  each  one,  less 
than  he  produces,  it  must  be  evident  that  wealth 
will  accumulate,  and  the  nation  ultimately  become 
rich.  What  then  remains  for  political  economy 
to  teach  ?  Does  not  this  simple  truth  comprise  all 
that  can  be  known  upon  the  subject ;  or  all,  at 
least,  that  the  mass  of  mankind  can  be  made  to 
comprehend  or  act  upon  1  The  answers  to  these 
questions  will  serve  to  indicate  some  of  the  claims 
which  this  study  is  thought  to  have  on  our  regard, 
both  as  a  subject  for  reading  and  inquiry,  and  also 
as  a  branch  of  elementary  education. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  then,  instruction  is  needed 
to  demonstrate,  and,  above  all,  to  enforce  the  truth, 
that  labour  and  economy  are  the  true  sources  of 
wealth.  Truism  though  it  now  seems,  this  prin- 
ciple was  overlooked  to  a  great  extent  even  by 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  15 

statesmen  before  the  time  of  Adam  Smith,  and  at 
this  moment  it  is  recognised  and  acted  upon  much 
less  generally  than  might  be  supposed.  Is  not  the 
world  still  full  of  expedients  by  which  men  are  to 
become  rich  suddenly  and  without  pains  ?  By  too 
many  is  not  labour  still  regarded  as  a  great  hard- 
ship rather  than  the  necessary  condition  of  their 
highest  welfare  and  enjoyment,  while  almost  all  are 
ready  to  stigmatize  frugality  as  a  niggardly  vir- 
tue? How  many  of  the  exchanges  of  property 
which  take  place  by  way  of  what  is  termed  spec- 
ulation, add  nothing  to  the  aggregate  wealth  of  a 
people  ;  being  but  delusive  expedients  for  creating 
value  without  industry  or  economy,  and  serving  to 
absorb  a  vast  proportion  of  talent  and  capital 
which  might  have  been  usefully  employed?  So 
in  chanty.  If  the  benevolent  duly  appreciated 
this  fundamental  truth  of  political  economy,  they 
would  be  more  careful  so  to  bestow  their  bounty 
as  not  to  paralyse  industry  or  engender  a  spirit  of 
improvidence.  It  is  melancholy  to  observe  how 
much  injury  can  be  occasioned  by  even  the  noblest 
sentiments  when  misdirected,  or  when  indulged  by 
the  ignorant  and  unreflecting.  So,  again,  in  gov- 
ernment. In  older  countries,  many  live  in  idleness 
and  ennui,  as  pensioners  on  the  public  purse,  who 
would  have  been  useful  and  happy  producers  of 
wealth  had  government  placed  a  proper  estimate 
on  industry,  relieving,  on  the  one  hand,  none  but 
unavoidable  indigence,  and  rewarding,  on  the  other, 
only  those  who  have  rendered  actual  service  ;  doing 
this,  however,  promptly  and  adequately. 

II.  Instruction  is  also  needed  to  unfold  the  va- 


16  PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER. 

rious  agencies  which  conspire  with  industry  in  the 
production  of  wealth ;  and  more  especially  the  ra- 
rious  forms  assumed  by  industry  and  economy  when 
these  are  most  productively  employed.  Besides 
industry,  the  workman,  in  order  to  fabricate  any. 
thing  valuable,  must  have  materials,  tools,  knowl. 
edge,  temporary  subsistence,  &c.  When  fabrica- 
ted, the  article  may  require  to  be  transported  to 
a  distant  market,  and  to  be  left  for  a  time  in  care 
of  some  one  in  order  to  be  sold  ;  as,  when  sold,  the 
proceeds  may  need  to  be  exchanged  for  other  ar- 
ticles more  desired  by  the  artificer,  or  to  be  placed 
in  deposite  for  safe-keeping.  So,  again,  the  artifi- 
cer may  be  sick,  and  require  medical  aid  to  enable 
him  to  resume  his  labours  ;  or  his  legal  rights  may 
be  invaded,  and  he  may  need  the  professional  ser- 
vices of  an  attorney  to  protect  him  from  oppression 
or  loss. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  he  is  dependant  for  much 
of  his  efficiency  as  a  producer  on  the  co-operation 
of  others.  Of  these,  some  furnish  him  with  ma- 
terials and  food  (or  money  to  purchase  them),  the 
results  of  previous  labour,  which  have  been  saved 
by  economy,  i.  e.,  by  abstinence  from  present  grati- 
fication. Others  contribute  kinds  of  labour  differ- 
ent from  his  own,  but  without  which  his  own  would 
have  been  in  no  demand,  or  would  have  been  com- 
paratively  unproductive.  Thus,  for  example,  the 
bread  which  we  eat  is  not  the  produce  of  the  ba- 
ker's industry  merely,  nor  of  the  miller's,  nor  of 
the  farmer's,  but  of  all  these  combined ;  and  not 
only  combined,  but  in  the  case  of  each  one  aided 
and  enforced  by  capital.  Neither  one  of  these 
could  have  supplied  bread  where  it  is  wanted  by 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  17 

the  city  consumer,  of  the  right  quantity  and  qual. 
ity,  and  at  precisely  the  right  time,  unless  he  had 
been  aided  by  all  the  rest ;  nor  could  all  of  them 
together  have  done  it,  unless  each  in  his  proper 
sphere  had  been  supplied  with  the  accumulated 
results  of  previous  labour  in  the  form  of  capital. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  the  one  great  and  indis- 
pensable condition  of  all  efficient  production  in  so- 
ciety, viz.,  CO-OPERATION  involving  division  of  la- 
bour,  exchange,  and  capital.  1.  There  must  be  la- 
bour, but  that  labour,  in  order  to  be  made  skilful 
and  more  productive,  must  be  so  distributed  that 
each  one  shall  be  able,  by  devoting  himself  to 
a  single  employment,  to  acquire  facility.  2.  To 
render  such  distribution  possible,  there  must  be 
mutual  exchanges  of  the  surplus  remaining  to  each 
labourer  after  his  own  wants  have  been  supplied. 
3.  To  enable  this  skilled  and  distributed  labour  to 
apply  itself  continuously  and  in  the  most  efficient 
manner,  it  must  avail  itself  of  the  stores  which 
have  been  laid  up  by  a  provident  economy,  i.  e., 
of  capital. 

It  will  be  perceived,  then,  that  a  commodity, 
when  at  length  it  reaches  the  consumer,  owes  its 
value  to  several  species  of  labour,  each  of  which 
alike  has  been  applied  to  it,  and  to  each  of 
which,  therefore,  remuneration  is  due  ;  and  also 
to  capital,  for  the  use  and  risking  of  which  the 
owner,  no  less  evidently,  is  entitled  to  profit.  Un- 
der whatever  form  labour  is  exerted,  whether  by 
the  husbandman  in  furnishing  the  raw  material,  or 
by  the  mechanic  in  so  transforming  that  material 
as  to  adapt  it  to  our  use,  or  by  the  merchant  in 
transporting,  preserving,  and  selling  it,  or  by  the 
B  2 


18  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

physician  in  taking  charge  meanwhile  of  the  la- 
bourer's health,  or  by  the  attorney  and  magistrate 
in  securing  to  him  the  protection  of  law,  or  by  the 
teacher  in  augmenting  his  knowledge  or  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  children ;  in  whichever  of  these  forms 
industry  is  applied,  it  is  evident  that  the  agent  is  a 
productive  member  of  society,  and,  as  such,  may 
claim  his  rightful  share  of  respect  and  reward. 
Not  less  is  he  a  productive  agent,  who,  by  self-de- 
nial, forecast,  or  activity,  provides  capital,  that 
"giant  labourer,"  without  which  the  arm  of  the 
husbandman  or  artisan  would  be  all  but  powerless. 
These  are  truths,  which,  when  thus  stated,  cannot 
but  appear  almost  self-evident.  In  practice,  how- 
ever, they  are  frequently  overlooked.  One  class  of 
labourers  rails  at  another,  as  if  its  members  alone 
were  producers  of  wealth,  and  the  rest  but  drones 
in  the  social  hive.  The  capitalist  expatiates  upon 
the  power  and  useful  agency  of  capital  until  he  for- 
gets that  it  would  be  worthless  unless  wielded  by 
the  steady  hand  of  industry ;  the  industrious,  in 
their  turn,  speak  of  the  capitalist  as  a  bloated  rep- 
tile, who  fattens  at  their  expense,  and  yields  back 
nothing  to  sustain  or  enrich  society.  These  prej- 
udices, vulgar  as  they  may  appear,  have  controlled 
not  a  little  of  the  legislation  of  the  world,  and  are 
at  this  moment  active  in  our  own  country.  The 
relative  rights  of  capital  and  labour,  and  of  differ- 
ent kinds  of  labour  as  compared  with  each  other, 
is  the  question  lying  at  the  foundation,  not  only  of 
ancient  and  imbittered  controversies  in  England, 
and  of  strikes  and  Trades  Unions  in  America,  but 
of  discussions  now  much  more  rife.  Happily, 
however,  with  us,  capital  and  labour  are  so  gener- 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  19 

ally  held  and  applied  by  the  same  person,  that  error 
on  such  subjects  is  less  prevalent,  and,  where  prev- 
alent, is  less  pernicious  than  it  is  abroad.  Yet 
even  here  it  still  broods  over  many  minds,  and  is 
entirely  dispelled  from,  1  had  almost  said,  none. 
We  argue,  then,  in  behalf  of  the  study  of  Political 
Economy  among  the  people,  because  we  believe  it 
will  impress  those  of  different  pursuits  with  a  deep- 
er sense  of  their  relative  rights  and  respective 
usefulness,  inspiring  them  with  feelings  of  stronger 
cordiality,  and  with  a  greater  disposition  to  co-op- 
erate in  promoting  their  own  and  the  general  weal. 

III.  Instruction  in  Political  Economy  will  serve, 
again,  to  enforce  and  recommend  the  all-important 
truth,  that  the  productive  power  of  both  labour  and 
capital  may  be  vastly  increased.  If  property  is  a 
blessing,  it  becomes  alike  the  interest  and  duty  of 
every  one  to  augment  it,  by  giving  to  the  instru- 
ments of  production  the  utmost  efficiency.  Now 
Political  Economy  proposes  to  teach  how  this  may 
be  done :  1st.  By  knowledge,  i.  e.,  by  such  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  state  of 
the  world  as  enables  both  workman  and  capitalist 
to  choose  the  shortest  and  most  certain  road  to 
their  objects.  Bleaching  cloth,  which  was  former- 
ly the  work  of  months,  is  now,  by  the  aid  of  chym- 
ical  science,  performed  in  a  few  hours.  The  na- 
tives of  South  America  spent  (Ulloa  tells  us)  even 
years  in  weaving,  without  machinery,  a  piece  of 
cloth  which  a  workman,  aided  only  by  a  hand-loom, 
would  produce  now  in  a  few  days.  Enable  the 
same  workman  to  substitute  the  power  of  steam  or 
water  for  his  own  strength,  and  you  add,  again,  a 


20  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

hundred,  and,  in  some  instances,  a  thousand  fold  to 
his  productive  capacity.  With  the  self-acting  mule, 
one  girl,  in  spinning  cotton,  will  do  the  work  of 
from  eight  to  twelve  hundred.  These,  of  course, 
are  but  specimens  of  the  advantage  which  results 
from  coupling  science  with  labour  and  capital :  an 
advantage  which  is  experienced  in  every  depart- 
ment of  the  arts,  and  which  seems  to  admit  of  al- 
most unlimited  extension. 

2dly.  Political  Economy  also  shows  how  the 
productive  power  of  labour,  and  even  of  capital, 
may  be  increased  ly  the  moral  and  intellectual  cul- 
ture of  the  labourer,  i.  e.,  by  raising  his  character. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  this  truth  has 
not  usually  held  that  prominent  place  in  the  science 
to  which  it  is  entitled.  By  scientific  writers,  as 
well  as  by  manufacturers  and  capitalists,  it  seems 
to  have  been  too  often  assumed,  that  the  progress- 
ive degradation  of  the  operative  must  be  the  inev 
itable  result  of  the  triumphs  of  modern  industry,* 
and  that  education  could  do  little  except  for  the 
employer.  To  this  melancholy  conviction  they 
have  seemed  too  ready  to  resign  themselves,  not 

*  The  views  of  Smith  and  other  writers  in  respect  to  the  ten- 
dency of  the  division  of  labour  to  deaden  the  faculties  and  circum- 
scribe the  intelligence  of  the  operative,  may  be  taken  as  an  ex- 
ample. They  seem  to  have  overlooked  the  fact  that  this  tenden- 
cy might  be  more  than  counteracted  by  the  intimate  intercourse 
and  associations  among  workmen  induced  by  such  division ;  by 
a  view  of  the  new  and  wonderful  improvements  in  machinery, 
&c.,  which  are  constantly  forced  upon  their  attention,  and  which 
are  the  result  of  knowledge,  and  by  the  habits  of  readiness  and 
activity  which  are  cultivated  in  large  manufactories.  It  may  be 
added,  that  the  very  monotony  of  employment  occasioned  by 
such  division  not  only  facilitates,  but  is  likely  to  constrain  the 
application  of  the  mind  to  other  subjects  on  which  it  can  expend 
its  surplus  activity. 


PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER.  21 

considering  that  such  triumphs,  however  splendid, 
might  be  purchased  at  too  dear  a  rate,  and  that 
the  wheels  of  modern  enterprise  had  better  roll 
back,  than  advance  only  to  crush  beneath  their 
ruthless  weight  the  hopes  of  so  large  a  proportion 
of  mankind.  But  we  cannot  believe  that  there  is 
any  such  dire  alternative.  It  seems  like  an  im- 
peachment not  only  of  the  goodness,  but  of  the  wis- 
dom of  God,  to  suppose  that  he  can  have  connected 
the  ultimate  and  highest  achievements  of  industry 
with  the  deterioration  of  the  industrious  classes ; 
to  suppose  that  men  who  have  become  besotted  by 
vice  and  enslaved  by  ignorance  are  to  be  employed 
as  the  most  efficient  instruments  of  production. 
That  in  some  countries  the  arts  may  have  im- 
proved and  wealth  been  accumulating  while  the 
labourer  has  ,  appeared  to  degenerate,  we  do  not 
deny.  But  we  hold  it  to  be  equally  clear  that  such 
was  not  the  purpose  of  Providence,  and  that,  by 
this  very  circumstance,  the  increase  of  wealth  has 
been  greatly  retarded.  The  power  of  every  indi- 
vidual as  a  producer  will  be  augmented  in  exact 
proportion  to  his  intelligence  and  virtue.  By  in- 
creased intelligence  he  is  able  not  only  to  perform 
his  allotted  task  better,  but  to  suggest  improve- 
ments ;  and  by  increased  virtue  he  becomes  at 
once  more  useful  to  society  in  educating  his  chil- 
dren, husbanding  his  property,  &c.,  and  more  val- 
uable in  his  employment,  inasmuch  as  he  is  more 
worthy  of  confidence.  No  one  can  have  visited 
those  of  our  manufacturing  villages  which  have 
been  brought  under  the  combined  influence  of  good 
schools,  temperance  societies,  and  churches,  with- 
out being  amazed  at  the  consequent  increase,  not 


22  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

only  of  comfort,  but  also  of  productive  energy. 
Instead  of  the  vice,  idleness,  and  squalid  poverty 
which  other  countries  may  have  taught  us  to  asso- 
ciate with  manufacturing  industry,  we  find  that  in 
such  villages,  as  elsewhere,  order,  competence,  and 
comfort  are  the  invariable  result  of  a  proper  sys- 
tem of  culture,  and  that  the  value  of  a  workman's 
services  to  his  employer  always  rises  in  a  ratio 
with  his  own  moral  and  intellectual  elevation.  In- 
deed, the  whole  history  of  New-England,  rich  at 
first  in  nothing  but  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of 
its  people,  and  yet  always  pre-eminent  for  its  pro- 
ductive power,  is  full  of  instruction  on  this  subject. 
That  history  teaches  that  FREEDOM,  EDUCATION,  and 
MORAL  WORTH  constitute  with  every  people  the 
grand  elements  of  material  prosperity  no  less  than 
of  social  and  individual  welfare. 

3d.  Instruction  in  Political  Economy  will  teach 
us  farther  how  to  increase  production,  by  teaching 
us  to  distinguish  between  a  true  and  a  false  economy. 
There  was  a  time  when  men  thought  that,  in  order 
to  become  rich,  they  must  hoard  their  property. 
We  now  begin  to  understand  that,  if  we  would 
have  it  accumulate  most  rapidly,  we  must  keep  it 
employed.  Still,  the  true  uses  of  capital — -the  im- 
portance, on  the  one  hand,  of  having  it  actively 
employed,  and  yet  the  advantage,  on  the  other,  of 
many  investments  which  yield  but  a  slow  return — 
the  immense  difference  to  the  community,  as  well 
as  to  ourselves,  between  productive  and  unproduc- 
tive expenditure — all  these  and  many  other  kindred 
subjects  are  still  but  imperfectly  understood,  and, 
even  when  understood,  are  not  always  reduced  to 
practice.  On  the  one  hand  there  is  much  of  that 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  23 

penurious  expenditure,  by  both  individuals  and 
states,  which  has  been  described  as  "  penny  wise 
and  pound  foolish,"  and  on  the  other  there  has  been 
great  and  almost  unlimited  profusion  in  regard  to 
objects  which  could  yield  no  equivalent  of  pleasure 
to  the  individual,  or  of  benefit  to  the  community. 
One  man  allows  his  property  to  lie  unproductive, 
because  he  dreads  an  outlay  which  will  be  sure, 
however,  in  a  few  years,  to  repay  him  liberal- 
ly; while  another  invests  in  a  splendid  mansion 
or  in  sumptuous  furniture  capital  which  he  needs 
for  his  business.  Even  the  same  man  may  be 
seen  one  day  mourning  over  the  prodigality  with 
which  money  is  lavished  on  railroads  or  canals, 
and  the  next  day  encouraging  his  wife  or  daughter 
to  pay  $50  for  a  pocket-handkerchief  or  $1000 
for  a  necklace.  We  are  far  from  denouncing  the 
luxuries  of  life  ;  but  we  cannot  but  entertain  more 
respect  for  him  who,  after  providing  handsomely 
for  the  wants  of  his  family,  employs  his  remaining 
income  in  permanent  improvements  on  his  estate, 
in  reclaiming  unoccupied  or  regenerating  exhaust- 
ed soils,  in  erecting  useful  buildings,  than  for  him 
who  expends  the  same  amount  on  grand  dinners, 
fine  houses,  or  masquerade  balls.  In  a  country 
where  there  is  "  ample  room  and  verge  enough" 
for  the  productive  employment  of  capital,  and 
where,  too,  there  are  such  noble  objects  of  public 
utility  to  which  we  may  apply  our  surplus  gains, 
one  cannot  but  lament  the  precocious  extravagance 
with  which  such  gains  are  often  wasted.  Let  him 
who  has  five  hundred  dollars  to  spend,  and  who  is 
tempted  to  such  extravagance,  but  reflect  upon  the 
different  results  which  would  be  likely  to  follow 


24  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

were  it  devoted  to  the  intellectual  culture,  or  to 
the  religious  and  moral  instruction  of  his  country, 
men  or  of  the  world. 

4th.  Another  means  of  increasing  the  productive 
power  of  both  labour  and  capital  is  to  transfer  to 
useful  employments  the  vast  amounts  of  loth  which 
are  now  misdirected,  being  employed  in  fabricating 
useless  or  pernicious  commodities.  Experience  has 
taught,  for  instance,  that  the  use  of  intoxicating 
substances  as  beverage  or  refreshment  is  never  ad- 
vantageous, and  almost  invariably  hurtful ;  that  it 
tends  insidiously  to  excess,  and  that,  through  such 
excess,  a  fearful  and  almost  incalculable  amount  of 
property,  as  well  as  of  life  and  happiness,  is  annu- 
ally sacrificed.  It  is  too  evident  for  argument, 
that,  while  these  substances,  when  thus  employed, 
do,  according  to  the  most  eminent  physicians,  no 
good,  they,  on  the  other  hand,  are,  in  cases  almost 
innumerable,  disabling  the  labourer,  absorbing  a 
large  proportion  of  his  gains,  and  debasing  him  in 
his  character.  In  what  light,  then,  must  Political 
Economy  regard  the  application  of  capital  and 
labour  to  the  manufacture  of  such  substances  for 
such  a  use  :  a  manufacture  which  destroys  no  small 
part  of  our  bread-stuffs,  occupies  many  thousand 
hands,  diverts  from  useful  employments  an  im- 
mense amount  of  capital,  and  which  can  flourish 
only  by  spreading  abroad  poverty,  wretchedness, 
disease,  and  death?  To  be  able  to  answer  this 
question,  we  have  simply  to  consider  what  effect 
would  follow  were  this  vast  amount  of  capital  and 
enterprise  transferred  in  a  single  day  to  the  culti. 
vation  of  the  soil,  and  the  fabrication  of  useful 
and  elegant  commodities ;  were  those  instruments, 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  25 

which  are  now  productive  only  of  evil,  transformed 
at  once,  as  if  by  enchantment,  into  the  beneficent 
ministers  of  humanity  and  civilization !  The  les- 
sons of  Public  Economy  are  here,  as  everywhere 
else,  in  unison  with  the  voice  of  morality.  This 
science  protests  against  distilling  and  brewing  on 
the  same  principle  as  it  protests  against  gambling 
and  war.  With  the  relative  innocence  of  these 
pursuits  it  has  no  concern.  Its  only  appropriate 
province  is  to  point  out  their  relative  influence  on 
production,  and,  considered  in  this  respect,  they  ev- 
idently belong  to  the  same  class,  and  must  incur 
the  same  condemnation. 

I  have  thus  specified  three  principal  ways  in 
which  the  study  of  Political  Economy  would  be 
likely  to  be  useful.  It  may  not  be  improper  to 
add  here,  that  there  is  much  in  our  own  age,  and 
especially  in  this  country,  which  recommends  this 
study  to  peculiar  favour.  It  is  the  age  pre-emi- 
nently of  the  people ;  an  age  in  which  their  welfare 
and  prosperity  have  become  the  great  objects  of 
attention  as  well  to  the  statesman  as  to  the  philan- 
thropist. It  is  also  an  age  of  peace ;  one  in  which 
men  have  discovered  that  the  game  of  war  is  ex- 
pensive to  both  parties  alike,  and  that  the  intelli- 
gent application  of  a  nation's  powers  to  the  useful 
and  liberal  arts  is  the  only  true  way  to  enduring 
greatness.  It  is,  in  fine,  an  age  of  industry  ;  one 
in  which  the  true  agency  of  property,  as  an  ele- 
ment in  human  improvement  and  civilization,  is 
beginning  to  be  understood ;  in  which  the  influence 
of  the  industrious  classes  is  proportionably  in- 
creased, andjn  which,  of  course,  it  becomes  more 
than  ever  important  that  that  influence  should  be 
C 


26  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

well  directed.  If  this  be  true  of  the  world  at  large, 
it  is  yet  more  true  of  our  people,  who  are  nearly  all 
devoted  to  the  work  of  production  in  some  one  of  its 
forms,  and  who  are  accustomed  to  measure  every 
enterprise  and  every  question  in  no  small  degree 
by  its  bearings  on  that  work.  In  "such  an  age,  and 
especially  in  such  a  land,  where  many  of  the  topics 
discussed  in  works  on  Political  Economy  are  per- 
petually before  the  people,  it  seems  doubly  impor- 
tant that  they  should  be  made  familiar  with  great 
fundamental  truths,  and  not  be  occupied  only  with 
details.  It  is  important,  too,  that  they  should  be 
accustomed  to  efforts  of  comprehensive  thought 
and  inquiry,  and  be  taught  to  look  in  their  own 
plans  beyond  the  present.  Above  all  is  it  impor- 
tant that  they  should  be  led  to  raise  their  minds 
from  the  survey  of  mere  production,  to  its  uses  in 
advancing  the  dignity  and  welfare  of  man  ;  to  read 
those  solemn  moral  lessons  which  this  science  ad- 
dresses to  the  reflecting  and  conscientious ;  to  be- 
hold that  perfect  harmony  which  the  Creator  has 
established  between  his  moral,  intellectual,  and  eco-  * 
nomic  laws,  and  thus  to  lay  deeply  to  heart  the 
truth  that  virtue  and  self -improvement,  as  they  con- 
stitute the  grand  end  of  life,  so  are  they  means  most 
efficient  for  the  attainment  even  of  property. 

IV.  Hitherto  I  have  spoken  of  the  uses  of  Po- 
litical Economy  to  individuals  when  engaged  in 
their  private  pursuits.  It  must  be  considered, 
however,  that  in  this  country  each  one  sustains  re- 
lations to  the  public  and  to  the  great  work  of  le- 
gislation which  render  his  acquaintance  with  this 
subject  doubly  desirable.  Many  of  our  laws  are 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  27 

intended  to  bear  favourably  on  the  production  and 
distribution  of  wealth.  That  they  often  fail  of 
their  object  is  but  too  evident,  and  it  is  hardly  less 
evident  that  this  failure  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
want  of  large  and  enlightened  views,  not  merely 
in  those  who  frame  laws,  but  yet  more,  perhaps,  in 
those  who,  by  their  votes,  determine  the  selection, 
or  by  their  influence  direct  the  policy  of  legisla- 
tors. We  are  far  from  supposing  that  every  per- 
son can  be  made  to  comprehend  thoroughly  all  the 
intricate  questions  which  this  science  presents. 
Not  a  few  of  them,  as  we  well  know,  are  encum- 
bered with  insuperable  difficulties  even  to  the  clear- 
est and  most  sagacious  minds.  Still  it  might  be 
well  if  the  people  were  so  far  instructed,  even  with 
regard  to  such  questions,  that  they  could  appreciate, 
at  least  to  some  extent,  the  magnitude  of  these  dif- 
ficulties. It  would  dispose  them  to  be  more  toler- 
ant towards  those  entertaining  different  opinions ; 
and,  above  all,  it  would  teach  them  the  necessity 
of  greater  caution  before  they  venture  on  sudden 
or  material  changes  in  public  law  or  policy.  No- 
thing, probably,  has  contributed  more  to  bring  this 
study  into  disrepute,  than  the  rash  and  inconsiderate 
manner  in  which  some  of  its  principles  have  been 
applied  to  legislation.  A  few  sweeping  and  com- 
prehensive maxims,  that  have  passed  from  the  wri- 
tings of  Smith  into  vulgar  currency,  are  seized 
upon,  and,  without  regard  to  the  nice  limitations 
under  which  they  were  originally  put  forth  and 
must  always  be  employed,  they  are  applied  to  ev- 
ery case,  however  peculiar  or  critical.  "  Nothing 
is  more  adverse  to  the  tranquillity  of  a  statesman," 
says  the  author  of  an  eloge  on  the  administration 


28  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

of  Colbert,  "  than  a  spirit  of  moderation  ;  because 
it  condemns  him  to  perpetual  observation,  shows 
him  every  moment  the  insufficiency  of  his  wisdom, 
and  leaves  him  the  melancholy  sense  of  his  own 
imperfection ;  while,  under  the  shelter  of  a  few 
general  principles,  a  systematical  politician  enjoys 
a  perpetual  calm.  By  the  help  of  one  alone,  that 
of  a  perfect  liberty  of  trade,  he  would  govern  the 
world,  and  would  leave  human  affairs  to  arrange 
themselves  at  pleasure,  under  the  operations  of  the 
prejudices  and  self-interests  of  individuals.  If  these 
run  counter  to  each  other,  he  gives  himself  no  anx- 
iety about  the  consequence  ;  he  insists  that  the  re- 
sult cannot  be  judged  of  till  after  a  century  or  two 
shall  have  elapsed.  If  his  contemporaries,  in  con- 
sequence  of  the  disorder  into  which  he  has  thrown 
public  affairs,  are  scrupulous  about  submitting  quiet- 
ly  to  the  experiment,  he  accuses  them  of  impa- 
tience. They  alone,  and  not  he,  are  to  blame  for 
what  they  have  suffered  ;  and  the  principle  con- 
tinues to  be  inculcated  with  the  same  zeal  and  the 
same  confidence  as  before." 

The  student  of  Political  Economy  cannot  be  too 
often  reminded,  that  the  principles  laid  down  in 
books,  however  true  in  the- abstract,  rarely  admit 
of  immediate  and  unqualified  application  to  public 
affairs.  By  the  great  masters  of  the  science  they 
are  usually  stated  with  some  reserve,  and  as  rep- 
resenting the  ultimate  rather  than  the  immediate 
objects  at  which  governments  ought  to  aim.  "  It 
must,"  says  Mr.  Hume,  "  be  advantageous  in  all 
cases  to  know  what  is  most  perfect  in  the  kind, 
that  we  may  be  able  to  bring  any  real  constitution 
or  form  of  government  as  near  it  as  possible,  by 


PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER.  29 

such  gentle  alterations  and  innovations  as  may  not 
give  too  great  disturbance  to  society."  The  great 
error  of  theorists  is,  that  they  do  not  appreciate 
the  impediments  which  must  always  oppose  the 
practical  adoption  of  any  new  system,  and  they 
are  therefore  impatient  of  "gentle  alterations" 
They  do  not  consider  that  a  vicious  system  may 
"  not  only  introduce,"  to  use  the  language  of  Smith, 
"  very  dangerous  disorders  into  the  state  of  the 
body  politic,  but  disorders  which  it  is  often  difficult 
to  remedy,  without  occasioning,  for  a  time  at  least, 
still  greater  disorders  :"  that  "the  man  whose  pub. 
lie  spirit  is  prompted  altogether  by  humanity  and 
benevolence  will,"  to  borrow  again  from  the  same 
high  authority,  "  respect  the  established  powers  and 
privileges  even  of  individuals,  and  still  more  of 
societies,  though  he  should  consider  them  as  in 
some  measure  abusive.  When  he  cannot  conquer 
the  rooted  prejudices  of  the  people  by  reason  and 
persuasion,  he  will  accommodate,  as  well  as  he  can, 
his  public  arrangements  to  them.  If  he  cannot 
establish  the  right,  he  will  not  disdain  to  amelio- 
rate the  wrong ;  but,  like  Solon,  when  he  cannot 
establish  the  best  system  of  laws,  he  will  endeav- 
our to  establish  the  best  that  the  people  can  bear." 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  writings  of  po- 
litical economists  have  not  contained  more  of  this 
kind  of  counsel.  Principles  are  too  frequently 
stated  without  the  necessary  qualification,  and  as 
if  they  were  fitted  for  immediate  and  universal 
adoption.  It  seems  to  have  been  almost  forgotten, 
too,  that  the  first  and  safest  place  for  applying 
these  principles  is  in  private  life  ;  and  by  drawing 
illustrations  only  from  subjects  of  a  public  or  na- 
C  2 


30  PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER. 

tional  character,  the  erroneous  impression  has  been 
conveyed,  that  in  respect  to  these  alone  could  the 
science  assist  us. 

I  cannot  close  this  subject  without  adverting  to 
an  error,  the  opposite  of  that  which  has  just  been 
noticed.  If  some  persons  are  too  much  addicted 
to  mere  speculation,  there  are  others  who  seem  to 
be  deeply  infected  with  a  dread  of  all  theories,  and, 
indeed,  of  all  attempts  at  scientific  inquiry.  That 
a  theory  may  be  framed  without  proper  regard  to 
all  the  facts,  is  true  ;  and  equally  true  is  it  that  the 
disciple  of  such  a  theory  may  blind  himself  to  oc- 
currences which  ought  to  have  corrected  his  views, 
and  may  thus  fail  to  profit  by  experience.  But  is 
it  not  also  true,  that  they  who  boast  of  being  prac. 
tical  men  are  often  partial  in  their  observations 
and  inconclusive  in  their  reasoning  ?  They  are, 
in  truth,  no  less  theorists  than  those  against  whom 
they  object.  No  general  opinions  can  be  formed 
or  expressed,  in  relation  to  trade  and  industry, 
without  theorizing  onYacts  ;  and,  since  these  facts 
are  of  constant  recurrence,  hardly  a  day  can  pass 
or  a  conversation  be  held  that  we  do  not  pronounce 
some  judgment  which  is,  in  substance,  a  theory  in 
political  economy.  So  with  books.  Every  trav- 
eller, who,  in  recording  his  notices  of  a  foreign 
land,  speculates  upon  the  causes  or  tendencies  of 
facts ;  every  historian,  who  attempts  to  trace  the 
progressive  steps  by  which  nations  have  risen  or 
declined  ;  and  even  every  poet,  who,  like  Goldsmith, 
muses  over  the  ruins  of  a  *'  Deserted  Village,"  or 
touches  in  any  way  on  the  vicissitudes  of  the  body 
politic,  is  engaged  in  theorizing ;  and,  if  he  does  it 
ignorantly  and  rashly,  his  speculations  may  con- 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  31 

tribute  more  to  diffuse  errors  in  political  economy 
than  the  most  formidable  quartos  of  a  Malthus. 
They,  then,  who  claim  to  be  practical  merely  be- 
cause they  disregard  books  and  science,  are  but 
theorists  who  reason  crudely  from  an  insufficient 
number  of  cases  ;  whereas  the  truly  practical  man 
is  one  who  would  enlarge  his  own  experience  and 
reflections  by  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the 
world ;  who,  having  gathered  principles  from  books, 
and  modified  them  by  his  own  observation,  stands 
ready  still  farther  to  correct  and  modify  them,  as 
the  progress  of  events  or  the  enlargement  of  his 
own  views  shall  require.  He  knows  that  many 
of  his  opinions  are  at  best  but  approximations  to 
truth  ;  and  that,  instead  of  dismissing  all  farther 
inquiry,  it  becomes  him  to  lose  no  opportunity  of 
rectifying  his  data,  and  of  subjecting  his  reason- 
ings to  new  and  severer  tests. 

III.    HISTORY    OF    POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

This  science  is  of  recent  origin.  Its  principles 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  formed  a  distinct  subject 
of  inquiry  until  within  the  last  two  centuries.* 
The  respective  parts  taken  in  this  inquiry  by 
France  and  Italy  on  one  side,  and  by  England  and 
America  on  the  other,  may  serve  as  an  apt  illus- 
tration of  the  great  difference  which  marks  the  in- 
tellectual character  and  habits  of  these  nations. 
The  two  former  had  the  merit  of  first  proposing 

*  The  labours  of  Aristotle  form,  perhaps,  the  only  exception. 
In  his  work  on  Politics  (Book  I.),  as  well  as  his  Ethics  (Book 
V.),  he  has  anticipated  several  of  the  most  important  doctrines 
of  modern  economists.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  the  sub- 
ject of  money,  the  proper  agency  of  labour  in  production,  and  the 
importance  of  freedom  to  trade  and  industry. 


32  PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER. 

theories  on  the  subject,  and  of  giving  them  a  scien- 
tific form.  The  latter  were  distinguished  for  the 
able  discussion  of  particular  questions,  and  for  the 
early  adoption  of  improved  systems  of  national 
economy.  The  writers  of  the  former  were  little 
conversant  in  practice  with  affairs  of  state;  but 
addicted,  both  by  taste  and  habit,  to  speculation, 
they  drew  out  their  views  in  formal  propositions, 
and  held  these  propositions  forth  as  the  subjects  of 
a  free,  but  not  always  sufficiently  cautious. or  com- 
prehensive discussion.  Those  who,  in  the  two  lat- 
ter countries,  took  up  their  pens,  were  for  the  most 
part  either  merchants  or  legislators,  and  were  ac- 
customed to  consider  only  such  questions  as  were 
of  immediate  concern,  and  in  regard  to  which  they 
were  called  to  act  as  .well  as  think.  It  required  a 
mind  like  that  of  Adam  Smith,  combining  the  spirit 
of  both  schools,  to  give  at  once  sufficient  scope, 
and  yet  sufficient  moderation  to  the  study,  and  to 
impart  to  its  conclusions  an  authority  which  would 
command  regard  alike  from  the  scholar  and  the 
statesman.  Living  in  a  commercial  town,  intimate 
with  its  merchants,  and  wont,  like  all  his  country- 
men, to  discuss  freely  all  public  questions,  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  was  withdrawn,  by  his  pursuits 
from  the  strife  of  faction,  and  accustomed  to  large 
and  comprehensive  views  of  truth,  he  was  pre-em- 
inently fitted  for  the  great  work  of  prosecuting  an 
Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth 
of  Nations.  That  work  he  performed,  in  a  man- 
ner which  entitled  him,  in  the  estimation  of  Sir 
James  M'Intosh,  to  a  place  beside  Grotius,  Mon- 
tesquieu, and  Locke.  Says  that  judicious  and  able 
writer,  "  The  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  War  and 


PRELIMINARY  CHAPTER.  33 

Peace,  the  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding, 
The  Spirit  of  Laws,  and  the  Inquiry  into  the 
Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  are  the  works 
which  have  most  directly  influenced  the  opinion  of 
Europe  during  the  last  two  centuries.  They  are 
also  the  most  conspicuous  landmarks  in  the  scien- 
ces to  which  they  belong." 

Thus  the  history  of  Political  Economy  naturally 
resolves  itself  into  two  periods ;  one  preceding  and 
the  other  following  the  publication  of  the  "  Wealth 
of  Nations."  During  the  former,  two  theories  had 
possession  successively  of  the  mind  of  Europe  : 
the  first,  called  the  mercantile  ;  the  second,  the  ag- 
ricultural, physiocratical,  or  economical  system. 

According  to  the  first  of  these  theories,  wealth 
was  derived  principally  from  trade,  the  great  ob- 
ject being  to  secure  what  was  termed  a  favourable 
balance,  i.  e.,  a  balance  of  exports  over  imports, 
which  was  to  be  paid  in  gold  and  silver.  This 
theory  seems  to  have  had  its  rise,  partly  in  the  be- 
lief then  prevalent  throughout  the  world,  that  all 
wealth  was  to  be  measured  by  the  quantity  of  the 
precious  metals  actually  in  possession,  and  partly  in 
the  desire  which  the  inhabitants  of  cities  (i.  e.,  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers)  had  to  secure  to  them- 
selves a  monopoly  of  trade  against  foreigners.  In 
order  to  keep  the  balance  in  favour  of  the  nation,  or, 
in  other  words,  to  produce  a  constant  influx  of  specie 
and  bullion,  importation  was  discouraged  and  expor- 
tations  stimulated.  According  to  Mr.  M'Culloch, 
Melon  and  Farbonnais  in  France,  Genovesi  in  It- 
aly, Mun,  Sir  Josiah  Child,  Dr.  Davenant,  the  au- 
thors of  the  British  Merchant,  and  Sir  James  Stu- 
art in  England,  were  the  ablest  writers  who  es. 


34  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

paused,  some  with  more  and  some  with  fewer 
exceptions,  the  leading  principles  of  the  Mercan- 
tile System. 

The  Agricultural  or  Economical  System  was  the 
fruit  of  a  natural  reaction.  The  importance  of  ag- 
riculture having  been  underrated  in  the  Mercantile 
System,  it  was  but  natural,  when  the  error  was 
discovered,  that  writers  should  verge  to  the  oppo- 
site extreme.  Hence  Quesnay,  the  founder  of  this 
school,  and,  indeed,  the  first  modern  writer  who 
seems  to  have  investigated  and  analyzed  the  sources 
of  wealth  with  the  intention  of  ascertaining  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  Political  Economy,  main- 
tained that  agriculture  was  the  only  species  of  in- 
dustry which  contributed  to  increase  the  riches  of  a 
nation.  He  was  a  physician  attached  to  the  court 
of  Louis  XV.  Having  been  educated  in  the  coun- 
try, he  was  inclined  to  regard  agriculture  with  more 
than  ordinary  partiality ;  a  partiality  which,  in  his 
case,  was  stimulated  by  seeing  its  depressed  state  at 
that  time  in  France,  as  well  as  the  evils  induced  by 
commercial  extravagance.  In  regard  to  mercan- 
tile and  manufacturing  industry,  he  contended  that 
all  the  value  they  added  to  the  raw  material  on 
which  they  operated  was  but  just  equivalent  to  the 
stock  and  capital  consumed  by  them  in  the  course 
of  such  operation.  Hence  they  were  regarded  as 
unproductive  employments  ;  and  the  Economists 
(as  this  school  were  usually  termed)  may  be  Re- 
garded as  the  legitimate  precursors  of  those  who 
in  our  own  age  are  so  prone  to  stigmatize  as  ww- 
productive  all  kinds  of  industry  except  their  own. 
It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  Economist 
went  farther  than  the  orator  of  the  Trades'  Union. 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  35 

The  latter  is  willing  to  recognise  any  form  of  la- 
bour as  productive,  provided  only  that  it  be  manual 
labour,  and  that  the  employer  does  not  apply  it. 
Instead  of  regarding  (with  Sully,  the  great  minis- 
ter)  both  "  Commerce  and  Agriculture  as  teats  of 
the  state,"  they  held  that  the  latter  alone  was  the 
source  of  wealth,  and,  that  it  mightx  be  fostered, 
there  must  be  unlimited  freedom  of  industry. 
Laisses  faire  et  laisses  passer*  (i.  e.,  let  every  one 
do  as  he  pleases,  and  everything  take  its  course) 
was  their  motto.  They  reasoned  as  many  now 
reason ;  "  since  the  public  interest  consists  in  the 
union  of  all  individual  interests,  individual  interest 
will  guide  each  man  more  surely  to  the  public  in- 
terest than  any  government  can  do."  They  over- 
looked the  obvious  but  much-neglected  truth,  that 
an  individual  may  find  it  his  interest  to  prose- 
cute  some  business  which  tends  to  impoverish  the 
community  ;  and,  farther,  that  the  proposition  that 
his  own  judgment  is  the  best  and  only  guide  he  can 
have  in  consulting  his  private  interest,  is  a  propo- 
sition which  needs  to  be  received  with  some  limit- 
ation. The  leading  doctrines  of  the  Economists 
became  universal  in  France,  and  obtained  no  little 
authority  in  England.  Next  to  Quesnay,  Dupont 
de  Nemours,  Turgot,  Condorcet,  and  Raynal  may 
be  regarded  as  their  ablest  expounders  ;  and,  with 
all  their  errors,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  these 
writers  did  much  to  promote  a  thorough  and  accu- 
rate analysis  of  the  sources  of  wealth,  and  of  the 
laws  which  regulate  its  production  and  distribution. 
The  narrow  views  which  were  taken  by  this  sys- 

*  The  reply  made  by  the  French  merchants  vwhen  asked  by 
Colbert  what  he,  as  minister,  could  do  to  serve  them. 


36  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

tern  of  the  nature  and  functions  of  labour,  could 
not  but  strike  many  minds.  For  Adam  Smith, 
however,  long  a  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in 
the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  afterward  a  resi- 
dent for  several  years  on  the  Continent,  where  he 
was  a  close  observer  of  public  affairs  as  well  as  of 
philosophical  theories — for  him  it  was  reserved, 
not  only  to  demonstrate  this  pervading  fallacy 
of  the  Economists,  but  to  substitute  in  its  place  a 
new  and  more  complete  system.  To  him  belongs 
the  honour  of  having  first  assigned  to  labour  its 
true  place  as  the  primitive  source  of  all  wealth. 
He  abolished  the  imaginary  distinction  between 
agricultural  and  other  kinds  of  industry,  and  show- 
ed that,  when  employed  in  commerce  or  manufac- 
tures, labour  is  not  less  productive  of  utility  than 
when  employed  in  husbandry.  He  unfolded,  in  a 
clear  and  beautiful  manner,  the  means  by  which 
labour  is  rendered  more  effective  ;  and  his  disser- 
tations on  the  division  of  labour,  on  the  use  of 
machinery  and  the  functions  of  capital,  have  rare- 
ly, if  ever,  been  surpassed.  The  prevailing  error 
that  wealth  consisted  in  an  abundance  of  gold  and 
silver,  he  may  be  said  to  have  finally  dispelled ; 
and  his  attack  upon  the  multitudinous  and  most 
vexatious  restraints  which  at  that  time  fettered 
the  internal  as  well  as  external  trade  of  every 
country  in  Europe,  was  so  masterly  and  over- 
whelming, that  it  may  be  ranked  among  the  most 
powerful  of  the  causes  which  have  contributed  to 
their  abolition. 

So  great  a  change,  however,  has  since  taken 
place  in  the  political  condition  of  the  world,  that 
much  of  this  great  treatise  is  already  obsolete.  It 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  37 

must  be  admitted,  too,  that  it  is  by  no  means  free 
from  error ;  that  more  than  one  of  its  fundamental 
propositions  is  questionable ;  that  the  spirit  which 
pervades  it  is  too  utilitarian  ;  and  that,  if  applied 
to  legislation  in  this  age,  and  especially  in  this 
country,  its  principles  would  not  always  be  found 
safe,  much  less  salutary.  Considered,  too,  as  a 
work  of  art,  it  is  by  no  means  perfect.  The  ar- 
rangement has  been  often  censured  as  perplexed 
and  illogical  ;*  the  digressions  are  numerous,  and* 

*  Since  writing  this  passage  I  have  met,  not  without  sur- 
prise, with  the  following  passage  in  an  "  Account  of  the  Life 
and  Writings  of.  Adam  Smith,"  prepared  by  the  late  Dugald 
Stewart,  and  read  before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  ia 
1793.  "  It  may  be  doubted,"  says  Professor  Stewart,  "  with 
respect  to  Mr.  Smith's  '  Inquiry,'  if  there  exists  any  book  beyond 
the  circle  of  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences  which  is  at  once 
so  agreeable  in  its  arrangement  to  the  rules  of  sound  logic,  and  so  ac- 
cessible to  the  examination  of  ordinary  readers.  Abstracting 
entirely  from  the  author's  peculiar  and  original  speculations,  I 
do  not  know  that,  upon  any  subject  whatever,  a  work  has  been 
produced  in  our  time  containing  so  methodical,  so  comprehen- 
sive, and  so  judicious  a  digest  of  all  the  most  profound  and  en- 
lightened philosophy  of  the  age."  He  remarks,  in  another  pas- 
sage, that  no  one  had  "  approached  Mr.  Smith  in  the  precision 
and  perspicuity  with  which  he  had  stated"  the  doctrines  of  free 
trade,  "  or  in  the  scientific  and  luminous  manner  in  which  he 
had  deduced  it  from  elementary  principles."  Accustomed  to 
regard  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Stewart  with  great  deference,  I 
might  be  tempted  to  retract  the  criticism  on  which  J  have  ven- 
tured in  the  text,  did  I  not  find  that,  in  addition  to  the  authority 
of  Sir  James  M'Intosh,  which  I  have  subsequently  mentioned* 
I  am  sustained  by  the  authority  of  almost  every  editor  or  critic 
of  the  work.  Mr.  M'Culloch,  in  his  late  edition,  speaks  of  the 
"  perplexed  and  illogical  arrangement"  of  the  "  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions" as  a  great  defect,  and  the  writer  of  a  critical  notice  of 
that  edition,  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  adds 
to  this  complaint  that  "  his"  (Smith's)  "  wanderings  are  so  very 
extensive,  his  involutions  of  digression  within  digression  so 
very  complex,  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  read  his  work  in 
any  other  way  than  as  a  series  of  slightly-connected  essays  on 
a  variety  of  interesting  subjects  ! !"  The  conviction  of  this  has 

D 


38  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

in  many  instances,  long ;  and  the  exposition  of  pri»- 
ciples  not  always  sufficiently  precise.  Yet  the 
style  is  so  clear  and  attractive  ;  the  illustrations 
so  rich  and  pointed  ;  the  very  absence  of  arrange- 
ment, and  the  desultory  mode  of  discussion,  render 
it  so  agreeable  to  the  majority  of  readers,  and  the 
range  of  information  displayed  is  so  vast,  that  no 
work  on  this  subject  is  likely  soon  to  supersede  it. 
"  Its  very  faults,"  to  borrow  again  the  language  of 
Sir  James  M'Intosh>  "  have,  perhaps,  contributed 
in  some  degree  to  its  specific  usefulness  ;  and,  by 
rendering  its  contents  more  accessible  to  the  ma- 

led  an  able  French  writer  (M.  Gamier)  to  prepare  what  he  terms 
a  "  Method  of  facilitating  the  study  of  Dr.  Smith's  work, "which 
is,  in  truth,  nothing  less  than  an  entire  rearrangement  of  the  va- 
rious topics  discussed.  The  reason  assigned  for  preparing  this 
"Method"  is,  that  "  the  Wealth  of  Nations  exhibits  a  striking  in- 
stance of  that  defect  for  which  English  authors  have  so  often 
bsen  blamed,  viz.,  a  want  of  method,  and  a  neglect  in  their  sci- 
entific works  of  those  divisions  and  arrangements  which  serve 
to  assist  the  memory  of  the  reader  and  to  guide  his  understand- 
ing. The  author,"  continues  M.  Gamier,  **  seems  to  have  seiz- 
ed the  pen  at  the  moment  when  he  was  most  elevated  with  the 
importance  of  his  subject  and  with  the  extent  of  his  discoveries. 
He  begins  by  displaying  before  the  eyes  of  his  readers  the  in- 
numerable wonders  effected  by  the  division  of  labour  ;  and  with 
this  magnificent  and  impressive  picture  he  opens  his  course  of 
instructions.  He  then  goes  back  to  consider  those  circumstan- 
ces which  give  rise  to,  or  limit  this  division ;  and  is  led  by  his 
subject  to  the  definition  of  values,  to  the  laws  which  regulate 
them,  to  the  analysis  of  their  several  elements,  and  to  the  rela- 
tions subsisting  between  those  of  different  natures  and  origin  : 
all  of  which  are  preliminary  ideas,  which  ought  naturally  to 
have  been  explained  to  the  reader  before  exhibiting  to  him  the 
complicated  instrument  of  the  multiplication  of  wealth,  or  un- 
veiling the  prodigies  of  the  most  powerful  of  its  resources.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  has  often  introduced  long  digressions,  which 
interrupt  the  thread  of  his  discussion,  and  in  many  cases  com- 
pletely destroy  the  connexion  of  its  several  parts."— See  Smith's 


Wealth  of  Nations,  with  a  Commentary  by  the  Author  of  "  Eng- 
land and  America"  vol.  i.,  p.  ' 


.  123,  London,  1835. 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  39 

jority  of  readers,  have  more  completely  blended  its 
principles  with  the  common  opinion  of  mankind," 

Since  the  time  of  Smith  several  eminent  writers 
have  appeared,  among  whom  are  Ricardo,  Mal- 
thus,  M'Culloch,  and  Senior  in  Great  Britain,  Say, 
Gamier,  and  Sismondi  in  France,  and  Sartorius 
and  Storch  in  Germany.  Ricardo  is  thought  by 
many  to  have  thrown  much  new  light  on  the  theo- 
ry of  Rent,  and  on  the  reciprocal  influence  of  Wages 
and  Profits.  Malthus,  though  the  author  of  several 
new  doctrines,  is  principally  known  by  his  Princi- 
ple of  Population,  according  to  which  it  would  ap- 
pear that  population  tends  to  increase  in  a  ratio 
much  more  rapid  than  capital  or  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence ;  and  hence  that  its  growth,  if  left  to  itself, 
must  ultimately  plunge  multitudes  into  want  and 
starvation.  M'Culloch  and  Senior  are  distinguish- 
ed rather  for  clear  and  impressive  expositions  of 
existing  doctrines  than  for  originality.  This  is 
also  the  chief  merit  of  Say  and  Gamier,  who,  with 
Storch,  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  enlightened 
followers  of  Smith  on  the  Continent.  Sismondi, 
an  able  and  acute  writer,  is  opposed  to  the  views 
of  Ricardo  in  relation  to  Rent,  to  the  theory  of  Mai. 
thus  in  regard  to  Population,  and  generally  to  what 
are  termed  the  doctrines  of  Free  Trade.  It  is  a 
subject  of  much  doubt  whether  the  discoveries 
which  are  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  some  of 
these  writers  are  entitled  to  that  name. 

It  would  be  improper  to  close  this  brief  historical 
sketch  without  adverting  to  the  labours  in  this  de- 
partment of  science  of  our  own  countrymen.  The 
love  of  freedom,  and  the  spirit  of  bold  and  restless 
enterprise  which  characterized  the  early  settlers, 


40  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

rendered  them  impatient  of  the  restrictions  which 
were  then  imposed  on  the  trade  and  industry  of  the 
colonists ;  and  hence  it  was  that  they  were  ripe 
for  the  practical  adoption  of  many  new  and  impor- 
tant principles  before  they  were  even  discovered  in 
Europe.  Nothing  in  our  history  is  more  remark- 
able  than  the  clearness  and  force  with  which  such 
principles  were  wont  to  be  put  forth  in  their  ad- 
dresses to  the  throne,  in  occasional  pamphlets,  and 
in  petitions  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  It  would 
seem  as  if  the  migration  of  well-trained  and  educa- 
ted minds  to  a  wilderness  world,  and  the  experience 
afforded  by  a  position  so  entirely  new,  were  among 
the  necessary  means  of  emancipating  mankind 
from  many  of  the  errors  which  for  ages  had  rested 
like  a  spell  on  legislation.'  Among  the  writers  of 
pamphlets  and  occasional  essays,  Franklin,  of 
course,  stands  pre-eminent.  In  his  views  respecting 
freedom  of  trade,  the  mutual  benefits  conferred  by 
commercial  exchanges  on  both  parties,  and  the 
folly  of  attempting  to  force  a  favourable  balance  by 
prohibiting  the  exportation  of  gold  and  silver,  as 
well  as  in  his  opinions  respecting  the  tendency  of 
English  corn  and  poor  laws,  and  the  influence  of 
the  South  American  mines  on  money  prices  and  on 
the  value  of  the  precious  metals — on  these  as  well 
as  on  other  subjects,  he  clearly  anticipates  the 
doctrines  of  Smith,  and  shows  how  much  the  public 
mind  on  this  continent  was,  in  regard  to  such  ques- 
tions, in  advance  of  that  of  England.*  After  the 

*  Many  of  the  Essays  of  Franklin  were  written  more  thai* 
twenty  years  before  the  publication  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations  j. 
and  it  is  also  said,  on  what  authority  we  have  not  seen,  that* 
while  preparing  this  great  work*  Mr.  Smith  was  in 
tion  with  Dr.  Franklin, 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  41 

elose  of  the  war  of  the  revolution  and  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  vast  service  was  rendered  to 
the  science,  as  well  as  to  the  country,  by  the  wri- 
tings of  Hamilton.  His  reports  as  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  on  the  Public  Credit,  on  a  National 
Bank,  and  on  Manufactures,  were  fraught  with  in- 
struction adapted  to  the  state  of  the  country  at  that 
time ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  contrib- 
uted most  powerfully  to  the  adoption  of  the  policy 
which  has  developed,  with  such  wonder-working 
rapidity,  the  resources  of  an  infant  but  mighty 
empire. 

IV.    PRESENT  STATE   OF  THE  SCIENCE. 

v  The  progress  which  has  been  made  by  Political 
Economy,  as  well  as  its  present  state,  may  be  infer- 
red from  the  opposite  opinions  expressed  in  regard 
to  it  by  writers  of  authority.  By  one  class  its 
principles  are  represented  to  be  so  clear  and  in- 
contestable,  that  they  merit  the  name  of  "  Political 
Mathematics."  By  another  it  is  said,  that  "  per- 
haps no  study  of  the  day  which  bears  the  name  of 
science  presents  more  vague  theory,  grave,  mys- 
terious empiricism,  dull  prolixity,  inconsequential 
arguments,  gratuitous  assumptions;  jejune  discus- 
sions, and  elaborate  triviality.  There  are  (contin- 
ues a  writer)  many  useful  truths  which  pass  under 
the  name  of  Political  Economy ;  but  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  treatises,  from  that  of  Adam  Smith 
downward,  seem  to  bear  the  same  relation  to  an  in- 
telligible practical  development  of  the  causes  and 
phenomena  of  national  growth,  wealth,  and  decline, 
jthat  alchymy  does  to  modern  chymistry."*  Mr. 
*  See  Encyclopedia  Americana,  art.  Political  Economy' 
E2 


42  PRELIMINARY   CHAPTER, 

Senior,  one  of  the  most  recent  and  highly  respect* 
ed  authorities,  speaking  of  several  of  its  principles, 
says  that  "  they  appear  almost  too  plain  for  formal 
statement,"  though  he  admits  that  out  of  England 
they  are  not  all  embraced,  and  some  of  them  not 
even  comprehended.  On  the  other  hand,  M .  Neck- 
ar  gives  it  as  his  judgment,  that  "  the  subjects  it 
involves  are  so  run  into  one  another,  that  people 
pass  and  repass  them  over  and  over  without  ever 
distinguishing  their  beginning  or  end."  One  able 
writer*  says,  "  In  the  far  greater  part  of  its  doc- 
trines there  is  nothing  perplexing  or  obscure  \'y 
another,  perhaps  not  less  able,")*  gives  it  as  his 
opinion  that  "  the  science  is  yet  in  its  infancy. 
If  I  may  venture,"  adds  he,  "to  call  myself  an  / 
economist,  our  alphabet  is  unformed  and  our  knowl- 
edge most  imperfect."  "  The  known  principles  of 
the  science  leave  unexplained  some  of  its  most 
important  phenomena."  From  these  contradicto- 
ry statements,  what  would  be  inferred  by  an  un- 
instructed  but  impartial  reader?  Would  he  not 
conclude  that  the  science  in  question  was  impor- 
tant, but,  as  yet,  by  no  means  perfect ;  that,  while 
some  of  its  principles  were  doubtless  cle'ar  and 
certain,  admitting,  too,  of  very  useful  applications, 
others  ought  to  be  regarded  as  mere  hypotheses  ? 

Such,  we  have  no  doubt,  is  the  truth.  No  one,  we 
conceive,  can  be  even  modei-ately  conversant  with 
the  writings  of  Political  Economists,  without  per- 
ceiving that  the  terms  which  they  employ  are  often 
indefinite  ;  that  some  of  their  first  principles  are  still 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xliii.,  p.  1,  seq. 
f  Wakefield,  see  Preface  to  Smith's  V^ealth  of  Nations,  with 
a  commentary  by  the  author  of  "  England  and  America." 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  43 

matters  of  earnest  debate  ;  and  that  doctrines  bear- 
ing  the  sanction  of  the  most  renowned  names,  and 
considered  at  one  time  as  unquestionable,  are  now 
losing  authority.  Whoever  will  turn  to  an  article 
on  Ambiguous  Terms,  prepared  by  Mr.  Senior  for 
Whately's  Logic,  will  see  that,  in  his  estimation, 
even  the  most  important  terms  appropriated  by 
this  science  are  used  not  only  in  different  senses 
by  different  writers,  but  in  vague  and  inconsistent 
senses  even  by  the  same  writer  in  different  parts 
of  his  work.*  It  is  thus  apparent  that  the  first 
condition  of  scientific  accuracy,  viz.,  precision  in 
the  use  of  terms,  is  still  unattained,  and  that  the 
attempt  to  raise  Political  Economy  to  a  place  be- 
side mathematics  is  akin  to  that  made  in  former 
times  to  imbody,  in  the  shape  of  algebraic  formu- 
lae, the  great  truths  of  moral  science,  j-  We  may  be 
allowed,  perhaps,  to  express  some  surprise,  that, 
having  thus  frankly  acknowledged  the  obscurity 
which  hangs  over  even  the  symbols  employed  in 
economical  reasoning,  Mr.  Senior  should  in  other 
places  have  claimed  the  merit  of  such  rigorous  ex- 
actitude for  its  conclusions. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  deserves  to  be  considered, 
that  the  terms  employed  in  a  study  may  be  indefi- 

*  Mr.  Ricardo  appears  (says  Mr.  Senior)  to  set  out  by  admit- 
ting Adam  Smith's  definition  of  value  in  exchange.  But  in  the 
greater  part  of  his  "Principles  of  Political  Economy"  he  uses 
the  word  as  synonymous  with  cost :  and  by  this  one  ambiguity 
has  rendered  his  great  work  a  long  enigma. —  Whately's  Logic,  p.  311. 

f  The  attempt  here  referred  to  was  made  by  Dr.  Francis 
Hutcheson,  one  of  the  most  acute  and  able  of  those  philosophers 
who  resolve  all  virtue  into  benevolence.  So  well  satisfied  was 
he  of  the  truth  and  correctness  of  his  principles,  that,  in  conform- 
ity to  them,  he  constructed  the  formulae  referred  to  in  the  text, 
by  which  he  proposed  to  compute  mathematically  the  morality  of 
fictions. 


44  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

nite,  and  many  of  the  principles  enunciated  more 
than  doubtful,  and  yet  the  study  itself  be  far  from 
useless.  How  is  it  with  the  moral  sciences  gener- 
ally? with  Law,  Ethics,  and  the  Philosophy  of 
Mind  ?  In  each  of  these  we  encounter  at  every 
step  ambiguous  language,  unsatisfactory  analysis, 
and  inconclusive  reasoning.  Yet  we  do  not,  on 
this  account,  the  less  claim  in  their  behalf  the  re- 
gard and  application  of  the  student.  We  still  be- 
lieve that  there  are  great  truths  which  they  unfold, 
and  valuable  intellectual  habits  which  they  cul- 
tivate. It  is  so  with  Political  Economy.  Some 
most  important  truths  it  evolves  for  the  first  time 
before  the.  student ;  others  it  illustrates  and  enfor- 
ces. It  gives  a  new  and  useful  direction  to  the 
thoughts  ;  provokes  a  spirit  of  inquiry ;  fastens  on 
the  mind  certain  practical  convictions  which  are 
invaluable  ;  and  arms  us  against  errors  which  pre- 
vail around  us.  It  is  in  these  respects,  rather  than 
as  a  text-book  for  legislators,  that  we  should  be 
disposed  to  recommend  it. 

It  would  be  neither  useful  nor  proper  to  enter  in 
this  place  on  an  examination  of  the  many  ques. 
tions  which  are  in  dispute  among  Political  Econo- 
mists. I  shall  merely  call  the  attention  of  the 
reader  to  one  or  two  defects,  which  seem  to  me  to 
characterize  most  of  their  speculations,  and  against 
which  the  student  cannot  too  carefully  guard. 

The  first  of  these  is  premature  induction.  Too 
many  works  in  Political  Economy  have  been  writ- 
ten in  view  of  the  condition  of  but  one  or  two  coun- 
tries ;  assuming  that  such  condition  was  natural, 
and  destined,  unless  prevented  by  special  effort,  to 
become  universal.  It  may  be,  however,  that  it 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  45 

was  purely  artificial,  having  been  superinduced  by 
a  vicious  system  of  legislation  or  other  cause  ;  and 
that  countries  living  under  happier  auspices  may 
not  be  destined  to  the  same  sad  experience.  Thus, 
the  excess  of  population  complained  of  in  some 
countries,  instead  of  being  the  result  (as  taught  by 
Malthus)  of  the  superfecundity  of  the  human  spe- 
cies, may  have  arisen  from  defects  in  the  social 
systems  of  those  countries  which  interfered  seri- 
ously with  the  natural  increase  of  the  means  of 
subsistence.  So  with  many  other  phenomena.  It 
would  seem  that,  in  order  to  a  perfect  development 
of  the  laws  of  wealth;  distinguishing  natural  from 
artificial  causes,  we  need  a  much  more  thorough 
and  extended  examination  of  the  industrial  history 
of  different  nations  than  we  yet  possess.  The 
prosperity  of  England  first  taught  economists  that 
low  wages  were  not,  as  they  supposed,  essential  to 
the  growth  of  national  wealth.  So  the  history  of 
our  own  country  has  already  served  to  refute  more 
than  one  specious  but  narrow  theory,  and  seems 
destined  to  do  the  same  work  on  others. 

One  great  evil  of  conclusions  drawn  from  a  lim- 
ited observation  is,  that  what  is  truth  only  for  one 
nation  or  one  state  of  society,  is  taught  as  universal 
truth,  entitled  to  reception  and  practical  applica- 
tion everywhere.  Thus  the  economists  of  Europe, 
writing  in  view  of  a  multitude  of  absurd  and  costly 
regulations,  which  had  fettered  every  species  of  in- 
dustry around  them,  have  used  language  which, 
under  such  circumstances,  was  not  unnatural.  The 
difficulty  is,  that,  not  content  with  announcing  what 
was  truth  for  England  or  France  simply  as  suck, 
they  have  announced  it  as  truth  for  the  whole 


46  PEELIMINARY    CHAPTER, 

world.  They  have  not  considered  that  a  country 
like  the  United  States,  with  a  vast  and  unoccupied 
territory,  having  little  capital,  and  where  industry 
has,  from  the  beginning,  been  almost  without  direc- 
tion from  government,  that  such  a  country  does 
not  need  the  kind  of  legislation  which  may  be  want- 
ed in  an  old  and  thickly- peopled  one,  burdened  with 
restrictions,  and  having  an  industrial  skill  and  cap- 
ital which  gives  it  great  advantage  over  all  other 
nations.  The  latter  would  derive  from  more  in- 
tercourse with  foreigners,  benefits  which  the  latter 
might  be  able  to  attain  only  by  cultivating  its  in- 
ternal trade  and  industry.  It  is,  at  all  events,  quite 
clear,  that  language  which,  written  and  read  in 
England,  would  be  substantially  correct,  might,  if 
brought  to  our  country,  and  read  and  construed  with 
reference  to  our  institutions,  be  equivalent  to  gross 
error. 

This  is  conceived  to  be  one  of  the  disadvantages 
under  which,  as  a  people,  we  have  laboured  in  re- 
spect to  this  science.  We  have  borrowed  our  Po- 
litical Economy  from  England,  and  from  works 
which  have  been  written  for  the  express  purpose  of 
operating  on  British  legislation.  The  changes  in 
industrial  and  commercial  policy,  which  these  works 
are  intended  to  hasten  abroad,  were  incorporated 
with  our  system  at  its  commencement.  We  al- 
ready enjoy,  in  most  respects,  the  utmost  freedom 
of  trade  towards  which  other  nations  so  earnestly 
aspire.  Yet,  forgetting  this,  and  reading  such 
works  as  if  they  had  been  composed  expressly  for 
our  use,  we  apply  to  salutary,  and,  perhaps,  indis- 
pensable provisions  of  a  wise,  paternal  policy,  the 
condemnation  which  they  levelled  only  at  burdens 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  »       47 

and  restrictions,  not,  perhaps,  at  first  without  use, 
but  now  superfluous  and  oppressive. 

Another  fault  in  the  speculations  of  Political 
Economy  to  which  we  may  be  permitted  to  refer 
very  briefly,  is  the  want  of  more  generous  and  com- 
prehensive views.  The  science  is  frequently  treat- 
ed as  if  within  itself,  and  independent  on  the  one 
hand  of  Ethics,  and  on  the  other  of  general  Poli- 
tics, it  embraced  all  the  elements  of  social  welfare. 
The  production  of  wealth,  too,  is  dicussed  as  if  this 
were  the  ultimate  and  only  end  of  human  pursuit, 
and  man  but  its  passive  instrument.  That  man  is 
its  chief  instrument  is  true  ;  but  by  no  means  that 
he  is  a  passive  one.  We  shall  never  comprehend 
thoroughly  the  laws  of  production  until  we  learn  to 
do  justice  to  his  active  powers  and  faculties.  Nor 
shall  we  impart  to  such  production  its  utmost  effi- 
ciency, until  we  consider  that  the  value  of  this,  its 
human  instrument,  depends  chiefly  upon  his  intel- 
ligence and  virtue,  and  hence  that  the  cultivation 
of  his  higher  nature  must  be  regarded  as  the  first 
and  most  important  step  towards  it. 

Again,  if  man  is  the  instrument  of  production,  he  v 
is  yet  more  its  end ;  such  production  being  useful 
only  as  it  supplies  the  wants  and  gratifies  the  de- 
sires of  the  greatest  possible  number  of  human  be- 
ings ;  while,  by  affording  them  leisure  and  inciting 
their  minds  to  greater  activity,  it  contributes  at 
the  same  time,  both  directly  and  indirectly,  to  their 
intellectual  and  moral  improvement.  To  consider 
wealth  irrespective  of  these  its  ends,  is  not  only 
to  infuse  into  the  inquiry  too  sordid  a  spirit,  but  it 
is  to  overlook  one  of  the  professed  objects  of  Eco- 
nomical Science.  This  science  professes  to  show, 


48  PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER. 

not  merely  how  the  greatest  amount  of  wealth  may  / 
be  produced,  but  also  how  it  may  be  so  distributed 
as  best  to  promote  the  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number.  To  be  able  to  decide  this  ques- 
tion, we  must  have  previously  ascertained  in  what 
happiness  consists,  and  how  property  can  be  made 
to  concur  with  other  agencies  in  advancing  it 
among  a  whole  people.  So,  in  order  to  compre- 
hend man's  agency  as  a  producer,  it  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  assume,  with  Smith,  that,  in  all  his  indus- 
trial efforts,  he  is  governed  merely  by  self-interest, 
and  that  the  only  principles  antagonist  to  this  are 
aversion  to  labour,  and  the  desire  of  immediate  in 
place  of  remote  gratification.  A  more  thorough 
analysis  would  disclose  other  and  more  generous 
principles  co-operating  with  this  desire  of  gain,  and 
would  require  us  also  to  make  allowance  for  other 
counteracting  causes.  In  one  word,  as  Political  y- 
Economy  forms  but  a  branch  of  the  Philosophy  of 
Man,  it  should  begin,  we  conceive,  by  borrowing 
more  largely  from  that  philosophy  its  first  princi- 
ples. It  should  accustom  us  to  look  at  man,  not 
merely  as  the  slave  of  a  narrow  self-love,  who  not 
only  may,  but  must  care  only  for  himself,  but  as 
the  member  of  a  vast  family,  to  whose  claims  he 
may  not  be  insensible,  and  for  whose  advance- 
ment he  was  ordained  to  labour.  Instead  of  with- 
drawing itself  from  other  and  kindred  branches  of 
study,  it  should  become  more  intimately  associated 
with  them,  and  should  thus  teach  us  to  entertain 
larger  and  more  generous  views  of  the  duty  and 
destiny  of  man.  Not  content  to  deal  only  with 
propositions  which,  like  those  of  Geometry,  are 


PRELIMINARY    CHAPTER.  49 

true  but  in  the  abstract,*  it  should  aim  to  speak 
to  the  business  and  bosoms  of  men.  Then  will 
it  richly  merit  the  too  partial  praise  bestowed  by 
M.  Gamier  on  the  Wealth  of  Nations.  "  The  sci- 
ence of  Political  Economy,"  says  he,  "considered 
according  to  the  view  of  the  French  economists, 
must  be  classed  with  the  natural  sciences,  which 
are  purely  speculative,  and  can  have  no  other  end 
than  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  which  regulate  the 
object  of  their  researches  ;  while,  viewed  according 
to  the  doctrine  of  Smith,  Political  Economy  be- 
comes connected  with  the  other  moral  sciences, 
which  tend  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  their  ob- 
ject, and  to  carry  it  to  the  highest  perfection  of 
which  it  is  susceptible." 

*  Says  a  very  able  writer  and  admirer  of  the  science,  "  The 
conclusions  of  Public  Economy,  like  those  of  Geometry,  are  only 
true,  as  the  common  phrase  is,  in  the  abstract ;  that  is,  they  are 
only  true  under  certain  suppositions,  in  which  none  but  general 
causes— causes  common  to  the  whole  class  of  cases  under  con- 
sideration— are  taken  into  the  account." — Westminster  Revieu>, 
October,  1836. 

E 


PRINCIPLES 

OF 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY, 

DEDUCED  FROM  THE  NATURAL  LAWS  OF  SOCIAL 
WELFARE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Definition  of  the  Science. — The  Study  of  the  Happiness  of  So- 
cieties so  far  as  it  depends  on  the  Abundance  and  Distribu- 
tion of  their  Wealth. — Its  Principles  capable  only  of  Moral, 
not  Mathematical  Proof. 

POLITICAL  Economy  teaches  the  art  of  managing 
the  pecuniary  resources  of  a  society  to  the  best 
advantage  of  its  members.  It  embraces  the  mor- 
al and  religious  education,  the  political  constitu- 
tion, or  the  personal  protection  of  a  people  no  far- 
ther than  these  influence  the  production  or  dis- 
tribution of  property,  i.  e.,  of  those  things  which 
are  the  result  of  labour  and  the  objects  of  exchange  ; 
and  which,  when  accumulated  to  any  considerable 
extent,  are  ordinarily  spoken  of  as  wealth. 

Hence  it  has  been  usually  designated  as  the 
study  of  "  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  wealth  of 
nations."  This  definition  is,  however,  incomplete, 
inasmuch  as  it  does  not  include  individual  as  well 
as  national  wealth  among  the  objects  of  the  science  ; 
find  inasmuch  also  as  it  seems  to  restrict  inquiry  to 


52  POLITICAL   ECONOMY, 

the  means  of  increasing  the  gross  amount  of  na- 
tional wealth,  without  regard  to  its  diffusion,  or  to 
the  influence  of  different  modes  of  production  and 
distribution  on  "happiness.  Again,  it  has  been  call- 
ed the  science  of  "  the  happiness  of  states ;"  but 
this  would  extend  it  over  too  wide  a  field.  Its  true 
subject  of  inquiry  is,  we  think,  the  happiness  of  so- 
cieties, so  far  as  that  happiness  depends  on  the 
abundance  and  distribution  of  their  wealth.* 

The  principles  of  Political  Economy  must  obvi- 
ously be  deduced  from  maxims  relative  to  the  con- 
duct  and  feelings  of  mankind  which  have  been 
framed  upon  general  and  extensive  observation. 
But  neither  the  feelings  nor  the  conduct  of  a  being 

*  There  is  much  difficulty  in  defining  with  precision  the 
province  of  Political  Economy.  Its  title  would  lead  us  to  sup- 
pose that,  in  its  practical  bearings,  it  must  be  to  a  state  what 
domestic  economy  is  to  a  household.  It  is,  however,  much  lesa 
comprehensive  ;  including,  of  State  Economy,  only  so  much  as 
relates  to  the  production  and  distribution  of  property.  By  most 
writers,  again,  such  production  or  distribution  are  considered 
as  the  ultimate  objects  of  inquiry  ;  while  some  hold  with  the 
author,  that  happiness  or  welfare  being  the  great  end  of  a  wise 
public  economy,  only  that  production  and  distribution  of  wealth 
is  to  be  considered  which  conduces  to  this  end.  The  truth 
doubtless  is,  that  the  production  which  most  conduces  to  wel- 
fare is  that,  also,  which  most  conduces  to  wealth,  and  vice  versa ; 
so  that  at  first  sight  it  might  seem  sufficient,  as  well  as  more 
consistent  with  the  rigorous  forms  of  science,  to  limit  our  in- 
quiries to  mere  production  and  distribution.  Still,  this  indisso- 
luble connexion  between  the  highest  welfare  and  wealth  is  so 
often  overlooked ;  so  many  write  of  the  latter  as  though  it 
were  the  end  of  life,  and  there  are,  again,  so  many  modes  of  ac- 
quiring property  which  are  conducive  to  anything  but  welfare, 
or  in  their  last  results  even  to  wealth,  that  I  have  preferred  to 
retain  the  language  of  the  author.  The  attempt  to  exclude 
from  this  science  all  moral  considerations  is  not  only  pernicious, 
but  futile,  since  we  can  establish  hardly  one  principle  for  distrib~ 
uting  wealth  without  inquiring  what  is  just,  or  what  most  con- 
ducive to  the  general  good.— Ed. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  53 

like  man,  endowed  with  freedom  of  volition,  and 
infinitely-varying  degrees  of  sensibility,  can,  with 
truth,  be  assumed  as  uniform  and  constant  under 
the  same  circumstances.  Hence  the  highest  de- 
gree of  certainty  which  can  belong  to  the  princi- 
ples of  Political  Economy  must  fall  far  short  of 
the  accuracy  that  characterizes  the  laws  of  the 
physical  sciences.  This  consideration  should  have 
prevented  the  attempts  which  have  been  made  by 
many  writers  on  Political  Economy  to  attribute 
the  force  of  mathematical  demonstration  to  its  con- 
clusions. The  fashion  just  now  among  this  class 
of  inquirers  is  to  designate  their  favourite  study 
as  "  Political  Mathematics  ;"  but  it  would  obvious- 
ly be  just  as  reasonable  to  give  the  name  of  "  Ethi- 
cal Mathematics"  to  the  sister  science  of  morals  ; 
since  the  principles  of  both  are  to  be  ascertained 
only  by  studying  the  same  variable  course  of  hu- 
man action,  and  with  a  reference  to  the  same  in- 
definite end,  viz.,  the  welfare  of  the  species. 

Still,  though  the  nature  of  the  subject  precludes 
any  approach  to  mathematical  certainty,  the  gen- 
eral laws  of  human  action  and  human  happiness 
are  to  be  ascertained  with  a  correctness  amply  suf- 
ficient for  the  formation  of  general  rules.  Though 
the  conduct  of  an  individual  cannot,  with  complete 
confidence,  be  predicted  from  a  knowledge  of  the 
circumstances  surrounding  him,  yet  that  of  the 
generality  of  men — of  the  great  masses  of  man- 
kind— may  be  determined  beforehand  with  the  ut- 
most probability  ;  and  the  object  of  the  political 
economist,  like  that  of  the  moralist,  being  to  act 
upon  the  masses,  this  knowledge  is  sufficient  for 
his  purpose. 

E2 


54  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Definition  of  Wealth  and  of  Labour.— All  Labour  productive. 
— Labour  rather  a  Pleasure  than  a  Sacrifice :  must,  however, 
be  free,  and  sufficiently  remunerated. — Minimum  of  sufficient 
Remuneration. — Wealth  no  certain  measure  of  Happiness. — 
Test  proposed. 

WEALTH,  then,  in  its  relation  to  happiness,  is  the 
subject  of  the  investigations  of  Political  Economy  ; 
and  by  wealth  we  profess  to  understand  all  the  ne- 
cessaries, comforts,  and  luxuries  of  life  which  are 
habitually  bought  and  sold,  or  exchanged.  If  a 
brief  definition  of  wealth  were  desired,  it  might  be 
declared  to  comprehend  all  "  the  purchaseable 
means  of  human  enjoyment." 

There  are  many  things  which  contribute  to  the 
enjoyment  of  man,  such  as  air,  water,  the  light 
and  warmth  of  the  sun,  the  beauties  of  nature,  the 
blessings  of  health,  and  the  exercise  of  the  social 
affections,  which  yet  are  not  considered  (unless 
metaphorically)  as  wealth.  They  are  valuable 
in  the  common  sense  of  the  term ;  but  they  pos- 
sess no  value  in  exchange.  They  are  not  ca- 
pable of  being  made  the  subject  of  purchase  and 
sale,  or  of  being  guarantied  by  the  law  as  proper- 
ty ;  the  economist,  therefore,  has  no  concern  with 
them.  The  range  of  his  inquiries  is  limited  to 
such  objects  of  human  desire  as  are  capable  of  ap- 
propriation by  the  law,  and  of  transfer  by  sale  or 
exchange.  The  regulation  of  those  elements  of 
happiness,  physical  or  mental,  over  whose  supply 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  55 

man  exercises  no  control,  he  leaves  to  Providence ; 
while  to  the  moralist,  the  divine,  the  physician,  he 
leaves  the  study  of  those  which  fall  within  their 
respective  spheres.  His  peculiar  object  is  to  as- 
certain  the  means  of  augmenting  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  in  as  far  as  that  happiness  may  be  affect- 
ed by  the  abundance,  or  distribution,  or  quality*  of 
those  things  which,  being  matters  of  purchase,  are 
capable  of  being  measured  or  appreciated.f 

*  To  the  words  "abundance  or  distribution"  in  the  text  I 
have  added  or  quality,  because,  in  estimating  the  effects  of  wealth 
on  happiness,  it  is  important  to  consider  the  nature  of  those 
things  which  are  reckoned  to  have  exchangeable  value,  as  well 
as  their  abundance.  Were  a  nation  so  depraved  in  taste  that  it 
attached  more  value,  in  consumption,  to  opium  or  brandy  than 
to  good  books,  good  food,  or  good  houses,  it  is  evident  that  its 
wealth,  however  great,  would  conduce  but  little  to  happiness. 
The  use  of  such  articles,  being  prejudicial  to  health,  industry, 
and  virtue,  would  in  the  same  proportion  induce  unhappiness, 
and  would  also  react  upon  production  to  diminish  it,  i.  e.,  to  make 
the  nation  poorer.  Hence,  whether  we  consider  the  means  of 
simply  producing  and  distributing  wealth,  or  the  means  of  so  do- 
ing it  as  to  promote  happiness,  we  should  in  neither  case  over- 
look the  quality  of  the  things  which  are  recognised  as  having 
exchangeable  value.  According  as  a  nation  is  led  by  its  tastes 
and  habits  to  attach  value  in  exchange  to  one  or  another  class 
of  objects,  in  consumption,  will  be  its  productive  energy  and  its 
aggregate  happiness.  It  would  seem,  then,  that,  before  under- 
taking to  unfold  the  laws  of  production,  we  ought  to  distinguish 
between  the  various  "  purchaseable  means  of  enjoyment,"  and 
show  how  important  both  to  the  productive  power  and  welfare  of 
a  nation  is  a  high  standard  of  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
taste.— Ed. 

t  Mr.  Malthus  and  other  economists  have  much  puzzled 
themselves  and  their  disciples  by  raising  a  needless  debate 
about  some  particular  things,  of  which  it  is  disputed  whether 
they  are  to  be  considered  wealth,  and,  therefore,  within  the 
range  of  Political  Economy  or  not.  For  example,  the  ser- 
vices of  menials,  and  of  artists  and  actors,  &c.,  have  caused 
much  dispute.  Mr.  Malthus  excludes  them  from  the  category 
of  wealth  on  the  ground  that  they  are  immaterial.  Inasmuch 
as  they  are  habitually  bought  and  sold,  I  should  consider  them 


56  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

One  of  two  circumstances  is  necessary  to  con- 
fer exchangeable  value  on  an  object,  in  addition  to 
its  useful  or  desirable  qualities,  viz.,  that  it  require 
some  labour  to  produce  it,  or  that  it  exist  in  less 
quantity  than  is  wanted — in  technical  terms,  that 
its  supply  be  short  of  the  demand  for  it.  Water, 
however  useful,  nay,  necessary  to  man — however 
valuable  in  the  ordinary  meaning  of  the  word — 
yet,  wherever  it  is  to  be  had  in  abundance  without 
trouble,  as  by  the  side  of  a  river,  has  no  exchange- 
able value  :  it  costs  nothing,  and  will,  therefore, 
sell  for  nothing.  But  at  a  distance  from  springs 
or  rivers,  as  in  a  town,  where  water  is  not  to  be 
obtained  without  some  trouble,  it  acquires  a  value 
in  exchange,  and  that  value  will  depend  chiefly 
upon  the  trouble  or  labour  it  costs  to  procure  it. 
An  additional  element  in  value  is  scarcity,  or  an 
insufficient  supply  to  meet  the  demand.  In  the 
deserts  of  Africa,  a  skin  of  water  may  at  times  ac- 

comprehended  in  the  definition  of  wealth  given  above.  I  can 
see  no  essential  distinction  between  the  services  of  a  nobleman's 
outrider  and  those  of  the  horse  he  rides:  between  the  value 
conferred  upon  a  piece  of  canvass  by  an  artist,  and  that  con- 
ferred upon  a  piece  of  cotton  by  a  calico-printer :  they  are  equal- 
ly reckoned  as  the  signs  of  wealth  by  others ;  they  are  equally 
enjoyed  as  wealth  by  their  possessor.  But,  in  truth,  the  at- 
tempt to  refine  upon  the  subject  with  such  minute  accuracy  of 
definition  is  much  more  likely  to  lead  to  confusion  than  clear- 
ness. [It  is  doubtful  whether  mere  ability,  or  "  services"  of 
any  kind  should  be  regarded  as  wealth.  As  an  all-important 
element  of  production,  they  must  hold  a  prominent  place  in 
Political  Economy,  and,  when  they  are  possessed  in  abundance 
by  a  nation,  they  enable  it  to  become  rich,  but  of  themselves  do 
not  make  it  so.  In  an  inventory  of  its  actual  wealth,  i.  e.,  of 
riches  in  possession,  they  could  not  be  enumerated.  A  noble- 
man's horse  has  exchangeable  value,  and,  therefore,  forms  a  part 
of  his  wealth.  Not  so  the  servant  who  rides  him,  unless  in  a 
slave  country  ;  yet,  as  an  agent  of  production,  the  servant  may 
be  much  more  useful  than  the  animal.— -Ed.] 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  57 

quire  a  value  infinitely  exceeding  the  cost  of  con- 
veying it  there  from  the  nearest  well.  A  rare 
jewel,  or  book,  or  object  of  art,  often  obtains  a  val- 
ue bearing  no  relation  to  the  labour  by  which  it 
was  procured  or  produced.  But  the  primary  ele- 
ment of  value  in  most  things  is  cost  of  procure- 
ment ;  and  the  cost  of  procurement  consists  almost 
wholly  of  the  trouble  or  labour  necessary  for  pro- 
curing the  article. 

What,  for  example,  gives  their  value  in  market 
to  the  fruits  of  the  earth  ?  Not  their  adaptation 
to  the  appetite  of  man.  The  finest  fruits,  if  they 
grew  spontaneously  in  such  abundance  over  all  the 
inhabited  earth  that  every  one  might  satisfy  his 
longings  for  them  by  the  mere  trouble  of  lifting  his 
hand  to  them,  would  have  no  selling  value.  But, 
inasmuch  as  fruits  grow  only  in  particular  situa- 
tions, and  require  much  trouble  in  planting,  pro- 
tecting, gathering,  and  bringing  them  to  market, 
they  acquire  a  proportionate  value  ;  since  those 
who  wish  to  obtain  them  must  either  take  them- 
selves all  the  trouble  necessary  for  procuring  them, 
or  must  give  to  those  who  do  take  it  a  fair  equiv- 
alent. 

All  saleable  property,  or  wealth,  therefore,  is 
the  produce  of  trouble  or  labour.  And,  in  order  to  f 
avoid  confusion,  it  is  desirable  to  confine  this  term 
labour  to  such  exertion  as  is  productive  of  wealth. 
Men  exert  themselves  for  amusement,  health,  or 
recreation,  and  may  fatigue  themselves  as  much  in 
so  doing  as  a  ploughman  or  a  mason ;  but  their 
exertion  neither  produces  nor  is  intended  to  pro- 
duce anything  which  can  be  exchanged  or  sold, 
and  it  will  be  desirable,  therefore,  not  to  call  such 


58  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

exertion  labour.  The  limitation  of  the  term  la- 
bour to  such  occupations  as  are  pursued  for  the 
sake  of  gain,  and  result  in  an  increase  of  the  com- 
mon stock  of  wealth,  may  serve  to  put  an  end  to 
the  unprofitable  discussion,  so  common  in  works 
on  political  economy,  as  to  what  kinds  of  labour 
are  productive  and  what  unproductive.* 

Though  it  is  a  law  of  nature  that  labour  in  some 
shape  is  necessary  for  the  support  of  man's  exist- 
ence, since  even  the  necessaries  of  life  are  in  no 
quarter  of  the  globe  to  be  procured  without  it,  yet 
those  persons  are  surely  in  error  who  consider  this 
condition  as  an  evil,  and  labour  as  essentially  a 
sacrifice  or  hardship.  Eating  and  drinking  are 
likewise  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  life ; 
but  they  are  not  on  that  account  usually  consider- 
ed as  sacrifices.  As  has  just  been  remarked,  we 
often  see  the  amateur  artist,  gardener,  farmer,  or 
mechanic,  fatigue  himself  as  much  for  the  mere 
pleasure  afforded  by  the  employment,  as  those  who 
do  the  same  things  for  their  daily  bread  or  for 
gain.  So  far  from  complete  inaction  being  perfect 
enjoyment,  there  are  few  sufferings  greater  than 
that  which  the  total  absence  of  occupation  gener- 
ally induces.  Count  Caylus,  the  celebrated  French 
antiquary,  spent  much  time  in  engraving  the  plates 

*  The  difficulties  with  which  the  ultra  refining  and  mathe- 
matical school  of  political  economists  have  to  contend,  are  well 
exhibited  in  the  disputes  between  them  as  to  the  limits  of  pro- 
ductiveness. Mr.  Malthus  denies  that  the  labour  of  a  cook,  a 
coachman,  an  author,  or  an  actor  is  productive,  though  assert- 
ing the  productiveness  of  that  of  a  butcher,  a  coachmaker,  a 
printer,  and  a  scene-painter.  Mr.  M'Culloch,  running  into  the 
other  extreme,  insists  that  the  occupations  of  billiard-playing, 
blowing  soap-bubbles,  nay,  of  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping,  are 
productive !  See  on  this  subject  Preliminary  Chapter,  p.  17, 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  59 

which  illustrate  his  valuable  works.  When  his 
friends  asked  him  why  he  worked  so  hard  at  such 
an  almost  mechanical  occupation,  he  replied,  "  Je 
grave  pour  ne  pas  me  pendre."*  When  Napoleon 
was  slowly  withering  away,  from  disease  and  ennui 
together,  on  the  rock  of  St.  Helena,  it  was  told 
him  that  one  of  his  old  friends,  an  ex-colonel  in 
his  Italian  army,  was  dead.  "  What  disease  killed 
him  ?"  asked  Napoleon.  "  That  of  having  nothing 
to  do,"  it  was  answered.  "  Enough,"  sighed  Na- 
poleon, "  even  had  he  been  an  emperor." 

Even  severe  manual  labour  is  not  necessarily  a 
sacrifice.  There  is  an  animal  pleasure  in  toil. 
It  is  questionable  whether  the  mental  or  bodily  ex- 
ertion  to  which  the  highest  and  wealthiest  classes 
are  driven  as  a  resource  against  ennui,  communi- 
cates, in  genera],  so  pleasurable  an  excitement  as 
the  muscular  exertions  of  the  common  labourer 
when  not  overworked.  Nature  has  beneficently 
provided,  that  if  the  greater  proportion  of  her  sons 
must  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow, 
that  bread  is  far  sweeter  for  the  previous  eifort 
than  if  it  fell  spontaneously  into  the  hand  of  list- 
less indolence.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  questioned, 
then,  that  labour  is  desirable  for  its  own  sake,  as 
well  as  for  the  substantial  results  which  it  affords  ; 
and,  consequently,  that  it  by  no  means  lessens,  but 
rather  adds  to  the  general  chance  of  happiness, 
that  nearly  all  the  members  of  society  should,  in 
some  shape  or  other,  be  placed  under  an  obligation 
to  labour  for  their  support.f 

*  I  engrave,  lest  I  should  hang  myself, 
t  In  a  popular  farce,  Deputy  Figgins,  a  London  shopkeeper, 
when  persuaded  by  the  solicitation  of  his  wife  to  leave  nis  shop 


60  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

Nor  is  it  much  to  be  regretted  that  some  modes 
of  employment  are  less  agreeable  or  more  irksome 
than  others.  Besides  a  difference  in  the  original 
tastes  of  men,  leading  some  to  prefer  occupations 
which  to  others  would  be  irksome,  habit  has  a  pow- 
erful effect.  Hundreds  of  facts  might  be  adduced 
to  prove  that  persons  engaged  in  employments 
which  to  those  of  different  habits  appear  intolera- 
bly disagreeable,  become,  after  some  practice,  not 
merely  reconciled,  but  attached  to  them.  There 
are  few  workmen,  indeed,  who,  if  asked,  will  not 
declare  their  preference  for  the  branch  of  labour 
to  which  they  have  been  brought  up  or  long  accus- 
tomed. They  might  have  entered  upon  it,  at  first, 
from  necessity ;  they  continue  in  it  from  choice. 
Whether  an  individual  ply  his  occupation  by  sea 
or  land,  in  the  open  air,  in  the  interior  of  crowded 
towns  or  manufactories,  or  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  these  circumstances  seem  to  affect,  but  in  a 
slight  degree,  his  happiness.  And  farther,  what- 
ever  inconveniences  do  attend  particular  employ- 
ments, are  usually  compensated  by  the  proportion- 
ately increased  remuneration  which,  under  a  sys- 
tem of  free  labour,  is  awarded  to  them ;  and  that 
this  compensation  is  complete  in  the  estimation  of 
the  labourers  themselves,  is  proved  by  there  being 
as  much  competition  for  such  employments  as  for 
any  other.* 

for  a  day  and  take  an  excursion  to  Richmond,  exclaims, "  Well, 
my  dear,  since  we  must  give  up  the  day  to  pleasure,  let  us  make 
it  as  like  business  as  possible. 1  And  the  sentiment  is  so  true 
to  nature,  that  the  hit  always  tells  through  the  theatre. 

*  The  competition  here  spoken  of  by  the  author  is  provoked, 
we  apprehend,  not  so  much  by  the  supposed  sufficiency  of  the 
compensation,  as  by  the  fact  that  other  and  more  agreeable  oc- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  61 

This  brings  us  to  the  important  consideration, 
that,  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  happiness,  Za- 
bour  must  be  FREE,  that  is  to  say,  voluntarily  exert- 
ed, and  left  at  liberty  to  take  whatever  direction  it 
shall  please  the  labourer  to  give  to  it.  Compulsion 
is  itself  a  hardship,  so  that  an  occupation  which 
might  be  undertaken  and  exercised  with  pleasure 
by  any  one  of  his  free  will,  becomes  a  grievance 
and  a  burden  if  forced  upon  him. 

But  not  only  is  forced  labour  less  pleasurable 
than  free,  it  is  likewise  incomparably  less  produc- 
tive. All  observation  confirms  what  our  instinc- 
tive sentiments  will  suggest,  that,  to  encourage  a 
man  to  put  forth  his  powers  to  the  utmost,  he  must 
be  left  free  in  his  choice  as  to  the  nature  and  quan- 
tity of  his  work.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  refer, 
in  proof  of  this,  to  the  notorious  idleness,  apathy, 
and  obstinacy  of  the  slave.  But  it  may  be  well  to 
advert  to  the  decisive  fact,  that  by  far  the  most 
productive  labour  of  all  is  that  of  the  mind,  which 
is  not  susceptible  of  compulsion.  A  man  may  be 
forced  to  dig  a  field  or  spin  a  web,  but  he  cannot 
be  forced  to  improve  a  plough  or  a  loom,  much  less 
to  produce  a  masterpiece  in  poetry  or  art.  Nor, 
even  if  compulsion  could  extort  such  results  of 
mental  labour  from  those  who  were  capable  of  it, 
could  a  master  know  beforehand  where  lay  the  dor- 
mant capacity.  No  artificially  prescribed  contri- 
vances can  direct  the  ingenuity  of  individuals  into 
those  lines  of  thought  or  action  for  which  they  are  by 
nature  best  qualified.  Perfect  liberty  in  the  choice 

cupations  are  taken  up ;  and  by  the  farther  fact,  that  multitudes, 
from  want  of  education,  are  fitted  only  for  inferior  pursuits,  and, 
therefore,  can  compete  for  no  other. — Ed. 

F 


62  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

of  occupations  is  absolutely  necessary  to  ensure  the 
adoption  of  such  as  are  most  suitable  to  the  pecu- 
liar qualifications  of  the  individual,  and  likely,  in 
consequence,  to  be  most  productive,  as  well  as 
most  agreeable.  And  thus  the  freedom  of  labour 
becomes  doubly  important,  as  necessary  for  in- 
creasing both  the  happiness  of  the  labourer  and  the 
productiveness  of  his  toil. 

Neither  must  labour,  to  be  pleasurable  or  pro- 
ductive, be  without  an  object.  It  is  the  cheering 
anticipation  of  some  gratifying  result  which  sweet- 
ens the  toils  of  labour,  relieves  its  irksomeness, 
and  appears  to  shorten  its  duration.  Though  in 
itself  no  evil,  yet  it  is  the  prospect  of  its  reward 
that  gives  it  much  of  its  zest ;  and,  if  this  be  scan- 
ty and  inadequate,  the  toil  endured  for  its  sake  is 
imbittered.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  sufficiently 
remunerated,  labour  cannot,  under  a  system  of 
freedom,  be  a  source  of  suffering.  The  temptation 
of  high  wages  may,  it  is  true,  induce  some  indi- 
viduals to  overwork  themselves,  and  thus  prema- 
turely exhaust  their  strength  and  health.  But 
these  are  rare  exceptions.  We  deal  only  in  gen- 
erals ;  and,  as  a  general  rule,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that,  where  a  sufficient  remuneration  is  to  be  ob- 
tained by  moderate  labour,  it  may  be  most  safely 
left  to  the  labourers  themselves  how  far  they  will 
or  will  not  exceed  that  point. 

With  respect  to  what  constitutes  a  sufficient  re- 
muneration for  labour,  there  may  be  some  uncer- 
tainty. This,  however,  may  be  laid  down  as  un- 
questionable, that  it  must  not  be  less  than  will  find 
the  labourer  and  his  family,  if  he  have  one,  in  a 
sufficiency  of  wholesome  and  agreeable  food,  warm 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  6$ 

and  decent  clothing,  and  convenient  lodging  ;  in 
short,  in  the  means  of  comfortable  subsistence,  be- 
sides enabling  him  to  improve  his  mind  by  reading, 
to  educate  his  children,  to  indulge  in  an  occasional 
holyday,  and  to  lay  by  a  provision  against  sickness, 
casualty,  and  old  age. 

If,  as  we  think  will  hardly  be  denied,  these  views 
are  correct,  we  arrive  through  them  at  something 
like  a  general  principle  as  to  the  economical  con- 
ditions  essential  to  the  general  happiness ;  namely, 
that  the  labour,  which  we  must  believe  will  always 
be  necessary  for  the  support  and  gratification  of 
the  great  mass  of  mankind,  be  voluntary  and  free  V 
in  the  choice  of  its  direction  ;  and  that  by  moderate 
exertion  it  obtain  as  its  recompense  at  least  a  suffi- 
ciency of  the  necessaries  and  principal  comforts  of 
life,  both  for  the  present  consumption  of  the  labour- 
er and  his  family,  and  for  a  reserve  against  the  fu- 
ture. 

These  conditions  fulfilled,  every  farther  increase 
of  the  comforts  or  luxuries  which  falls  to  be  divi- 
ded among  the  members  of  a  community  is  an  in- 
crease to  their  general  means  of  happiness,  pro- 
portionate, cateris  paribus,  to  the  equality  with 
which  they  are  distributed.  But  these  conditions 
must  be  fulfilled  before  an  increase  of  the  general 
wealth  can  be  assumed  to  be  an  addition  to  the  gen- 
eral happiness,  and  therefore  a  desirable  object  in 
the  eyes  of  the  political  economist ;  who,  mindful 
of  the  true  end  of  his  science,  looks  to  wealth  only 
as  a  means  of  happiness,  and  declares  against  all 
such  measures  as,  though  tending  to  augment  the 
mass  of  wealth,  do  not  tend  to  distribute  it  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  promote  that  end. 


64  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

That  every  increase  of  wealth  is  not  a  proper- 
tionate  increase  of  the  aggregate  means  of  enjoy- 
ment— nay,  that  some  kinds  of  wealth  may  be  much 
augmented  at  a  great  sacrifice  of  human  happiness 
— is  easily  demonstrable.  Suppose,  for  example, 
a  race  of  absolute  sovereigns,  having  a  taste  for 
jewels,  were  to  employ  several  thousands  of  their 
subjects  or  slaves,  generation  after  generation,  in 
toiling  to  procure  them  :  these  treasures  will  be 
wealth  of  enormous  value,  but  will  add  barely  any- 
thing  to  the  aggregate,  means  of  enjoyment.  Sup. 
pose  another  race  of  sovereigns  to  have  employed 
equal  numbers  of  workmen  during  the  same  time 
in  making  roads,  canals,  docks,  and  harbours 
throughout  their  dominions,  and  in  erecting  hospitals 
and  public  buildings  for  education  or  charity ;  these " 
acquisitions  to  the  wealth  of  the  country,  having 
cost  the  same  labour,  may  be  of  equal  exchange* 
able  value  with  the  diamonds  of  the  other  sover- 
eign ;  but  are  they  to  be  reckoned  only  equally 
useful — equal  accessions  to  the  aggregate  of  hu- 
man gratification  ?  Suppose  two  tracts  of  ground 
of  equal  extent  and  fertility,  one  laid  down  as  a 
race-course  for  the  sole  pleasure  of  a  few  wealthy 
individuals,  the  other  divided  into  moderate-sized 
farms,  each  affording  to  the  landlord  a  fair  rent,  to 
the  occupant  employment  and  maintenance,  and  to 
the  community  an  enlarged  supply  of  food.  Such 
tracts  may  be  equally  valuable  if  sold  in  the  mar- 
ket, but  are  they  equal  in  their  influence  on  the 
sum  of  human  enjoyment  ?  Even  Slavery  itself 
may  be  a  means  (though  far  from  the  most  produc- 
tive) of  increasing  the  quantity  of  exchangeable 
wealth  in  the  world  ;  but  will  any  one  recommend 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  65 

it  as  a  means  of  augmenting  the  mass  of  human 
happiness  ?  No  !  wealth  may  be  purchased  at  too 
high  a  price,  if  that  price  be  the  degradation  and 
suffering  of  those  who  produce  it.  Wealth  is  only 
to  be  measured  by  its  exchangeable  value.  In  this 
sense  increase  of  wealth  assuredly  is  no  true  meas- 
ure of  the  increase  of  enjoyment ;  and  the  science 
of  wealth,  if  the  attention  be  confined  to  the  means 
of  increasing  its  aggregate  amount,  may  just  as 
frequently  lead  to  what  will  injure  as  to  what  will 
benefit  the  human  race.  If  the  greatest  happiness 
of  the  community  is  the  true  and  only  end  of  all 
institutions,  it  follows  that  a  government  which 
should  take  political  economy  of  this  kind  as  a 
guide  to  its  legislation,  without  continually  correct- 
ing  its  conclusions  by  reference  to  the  principles 
on  which  the  happiness,  not  the  wealth,  of  man  de- 
pends, must  often  sacrifice  the  real  interests  of  the 
people  it  presides  over  for  a  glittering  fiction. 

It  may  be  said  that  such  inquiries  would  be  dif- 
ficult and  complicated ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  mete 
out  happiness,  or  establish  a  graduated  scale  by 
which  to  ascertain  the  utility  of  legislative  meas- 
ures towards  this  end.  But  the  same  argument 
might  evidently  be  urged  with  equal  force  against 
all  moral  science.  The  happiness  of  society  is 
the  only  end  of  every  moral  as  of  every  economic 
precept.  If  it  be,  as  we  readily  admit,  impossible 
to  ascertain  to  a  fraction  the  precise  extent  in 
which  any  given  measure  is  likely  to  affect  the 
happiness  of  a  community,  still  this  can  be  no 
reason  for  adopting  so  obviously  false  a  standard 
as  the  increase  of  its  aggregate  wealth  alone. 
There  are  other  tests  which  there  can  be  no  good 


66  POLITICAL   ECONOMY, 

reason  for  neglecting  ;  there  are,  in  the  pursuit  of 
economic  as  of  moral  policy,  some  broad  landmarks 
to  which  it  would  be  folly  to  shut  our  eyes  ;  some 
palpable  boundaries  which  it  would  be  madness  to 
cross  ;  some  clear  general  rules  which  point  the 
direction  of  our  path,  and  reduce  the  chances  of 
error  within  very  trifling  limits,  if  we  do  not  mad. 
ly  refuse  to  walk  by  their  light. 

One  of  these  criteria,  and  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant, is  the  proposition,  which  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  lay  down  as  a  fundamental  truth,  that  the 
amount  of  human  enjoyment  principally  depends  on 
the  number  of  human  beings  enabled,  without  exces- 
sive toil,  to  obtain  a  comfortable  subsistence,  with 
satisfactory  security  for  its  continuance. 

That  the  happiness  of  individuals  does  not  ne- 
cessarily increase  with  their  wealth,  is  attested  by 
the  combined  authority  of  all  the  philosophers  and 
moralists  of  past  ages.  The  most  cursory  obser- 
vation of  mankind  proves  that  there  is  often  as 
much  enjoyment  of  life  beneath  a  straw  roof  as  a 
painted  ceiling,  under  a  smock  frock  as  a  silken 
robe.  Nay,  there  are  who  very  plausibly  urge  that 

"  Quei  che  felici  son  non  ban  camicia — "* 

*  Casti,  la  Camicia  delV  Uomo  Felice ;  one  of  the  few  of  his 
Novelle  that  can  be  read  with  a  relish  for  the  philosophy,  un- 
disturbed by  disgust  at  the  profligacy,  of  this  clever  satirist.  A 
sick  sovereign  is  recommended,  as  an  infallible  specific  for  his 
disorder,  the  application  of  "the  shirt  of  a  happy  man."  His 
emissaries  in  vain  ransack  all  countries  in  search  of  such  a 
being.  At  last  they  discover  an  individual  who  acknowledges 
himself  to  be  happy,  in  the  shape  of  a  wild  mountain  shepherd. 
But,  alas !  he  has  no  shirt !  on  which  the  tale  ends  with  the 
above  exclamation,  "  Those  only  are  happy  who  have  no  shirts 
to  wear."  So  D'Alembert  used  to  say, "  Qui  est  ce  qui  est  heu- 
reux  ?  Quelque  miserable  1" 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  67 

the  cares  of  life  increase  with  the  increase  of  prop, 
erty. 

Without  heaping  together  commonplaces  on  the 
subject,  it  will  be  disputed  by  few,  that,  beyond  a 
certain  point,  the  amount  of  enjoyment  shared  by 
the  different  classes  of  society  is  pretty  equal. 
"  Life,"  says  a  shrewd  writer,  herself  of  the  most 
elevated  class, "  affords  disagreeable  things  in  plen- 
ty to  the  highest  ranks,  and  comforts  to  the  lowest ; 
so  that,  on  the  whole,  things  are  more  equally  divi- 
ded among  the  sons  of  Adam  than  they  are  gener- 
ally supposed  to  be."*  "  Whoever  enjoys  health," 
says  Jean  Jacques,  "  and  is  in  no  want  of  necessa- 
ries, is  rich  enough ;  'tis  the  aurea  mediocritas  of 
Horace." 

The  means,  then,  of  comfortable '  subsistence, 
compose  the  competence  which  admits  of  perhaps 
as  keen  and  complete  enjoyment  of  life  as  any  for- 
tune can  bestow.  That  this  comfortable  subsist- 
ence is  to  be  procured  only  by  labour,  so  that  it  be 
voluntary,  free  in  its  direction,  and  not  excessive, 
is,  as  I  have  attempted  to  show,  no  detraction  from 
the  enjoyment  it  affords,  but  rather,  if  anything,  an 
addition  to  them. 

If,  however,  we  come  to  the  conclusion  that  an  in- 
dividual who  has  within  his  easy  reach  the  means 
of  comfortable  subsistence,  enjoys  as  fair  a  chance 
of  happiness  as  those  who  occupy  stations  in  the 
common  opinion  of  the  world  more  enviable,  it  is 
very  clear  that  less  than  this  will  not  afford  the  same 
chance.  Though  the  enjoyments  of  wealth  may  be, 
on  the  whole,  counterbalanced  by  the  cares  that  ac- 
company it,  the  evils  of  poverty  are  real  and  uncom- 
*  Letters  of  Lady  M.  W.  Montague. 


68  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

pensated.  An  individual  who  wants  the  means  of 
subsistence — nay,  of  comfortable  subsistence,  to- 
gether  with  satisfactory  security  for  its  continuance, 
is  in  a  state  of  suffering  1  Coarse  diet  may  please 
the  hungry  appetite  of  the  peasant  as  much,  or  more, 
than  do  costly  viands  the  palate  of  the  rich  gour- 
mand, and  a  frieze  coat  may  be  as  pleasant  wear 
as  superfine  ;  but  scanty,  unvaried,  and  ill-flavour- 
ed food,  or  deficient  clothing  and  fuel,  or  intellectu- 
al and  moral  degradation,  each,  if  it  does  not  entire- 
ly prevent,  must  greatly  detract  from  the  enjoyment 
of  life. 

The  conclusion  then  is,  that  every  individual  who 
has  assured  to  him  the  means  of  comfortable  sub- 
sistence without  excessive  toil,  has  a  tolerably  equal 
chance  for  happiness  with  those  who  possess  a  lar- 
ger share  of  wealth  ;  but  that  any  falling  off  from 
this  condition  will  proportionably  lessen  the  individ- 
ual chance  of  enjoyment.  Consequently,  the  means 
of  enjoyment  possessed  by  any  society  must  be  judg- 
ed of  principally  by  the  number  of  those  who  pos- 
sess the  means  of  comfortable  and  rational  subsist- 
ence on  these  terms,  compared  with  that  of  those 
who  fail  in  obtaining  them.  And  we  thus  acquire 
a  primary  measure  of  national  happiness,  independ- 
ent of  the  aggregate  amount  of  wealth  in  its  pos- 
session, which  cannot  but  be  of  service  in  the  study 
of  the  domestic  economy  of  communities, 

The  inference  we  deduce  from  this  position  is, 
that  the  first  economical  object  with  every  people 
ought  to  be  the  securing  to  each  individual  the  means 
of  comfortable  subsistence  in  return  for  his  labour, 
and  the  certainty  of  its  continuance  ;  and  that,  un- 
til this  is  effected,  no  general  augmentation  of  the 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  69 

national  wealth  ;  no  signs  of  increased  luxury 
among  the  higher  or  middle  classes ;  no  swelling 
of  the  import  or  export  lists,  or  other  supposed  tests 
of  national  prosperity,  can  be  depended  on.  The 
increase  of  wealth  may  add  to  the  means  of  grati. 
fication  of  the  few  who  have  already  more  than  they 
can  possibly  enjoy,  but  it  may  be  accompanied  by  a 
falling  off  in  the  means  of  the  many,  who  even  now 
have  less  than  the  minimum  necessary  to  save  them 
from  positive  suffering. 

How  this  great  object  is  to  be  accomplished ; 
what  are  the  steps  which  should  be  taken  to  pro- 
mote so  desirable  a  state  of  things,  can  only  be  dis- 
covered by  a  study  of  the  natural  laws  which  de- 
termine the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth, 
and  particularly  of  those  things  which  compose  the 
necessaries  and  primary  comforts  of  life;  To  this 
study  we  now  proceed. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

Conditions  of  the  Production  of  Wealth.— The  Institution  of 
private  Property. — Labour. — Land. — Capital, 

IT  appears  that  man  has  everywhere  and  always, 
from  the  first  traces  we  possess  of  his  history,  la- 
boured in  the  production  of  wealth  on  that  simple 
principle  of  appropriation,  that  whatever  an  individ- 
ual creates  or  redeems  from  a  state  of  nature  by 
his  labour,  is  his,  and  ought  to  be  at  his  disposal. 


70  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

In  some  rare  instances,  however,  this  principle  of 
private  property  has  been  exchanged  for  that  of  a 
community  of  goods  between  all  the  members  of  a 
society.  But  the  experiment  may  be  pronounced 
to  have  never  succeeded  in  practice.  Indeed,  it  will 
appear  upon  reflection  to  be  irreconcilable  with  the 
most  obvious  principles  of  human  nature.  One  of 
the  strongest  of  these  is  the  desire  of  individual  ap- 
propriation. Sympathy  is  no  doubt  a  very  power- 
ful  sentiment ;  but  it  is  provided  by  Nature  with  a 
view,  as  we  may  well  believe,  to  the  preservation  of 
the  species,  that  the  instinct  of  self-appropriation 
should  for  the  most  part  prevail  over  it.  In  the 
common  phrase,  one's  self  stands  as  number  one. 
In  the  extremity  of  want  or  danger,  this  instinct  be- 
trays  itself  most  conspicuously.  Next  to  a  man's 
own  self,  in  his  estimation,  usually  stand  his  chil- 
dren, his  parents,  and  the  wife  of  his  bosom*  These 
are  almost  a  part  of  himself ;  and  their  gratification 
is  nearly  as  strong  a  motive  for  exertion  as  his  own. 
But  the  sentiment,  becomes  diluted  by  an  attempt  to 
expand  it  over  a  wide  circle.  And  it  is  certain  that, 
as  a  general  rule,  man  will  not  labour  for  others  than 
his  immediate  family,  or  for  the  increase  of  any  com- 
mon fund  to  be  shared  in  alike  by  the  members  of  a 
large  community,  with  anything  like  the  zest  and 
willingness,  the  assiduity  and  perseverance  with 
which  he  will  toil  for  himself. 

Even  within  the  limits  of  a  family  circle,  the 
same  rule  holds  good  among  those  who  have  at- 
tained to  an  age  rendering  them  capable  of  labour. 
History  presents  us  with  many  examples,  and  some 
are  yet  to  be  found  existing,  of  patriarchal  fami- 
}ies  in  which  all  the  members,  comprehending  seY* 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  71 

eral  generations,  labour  for  one  common  funcL 
But,  though  these  communities  frequently  offer  en* 
gaging  pictures  of  domestic  happiness,  they  have 
been  rarely,  if  ever,  observed  to  make  much  ad- 
vance in  the  arts  of  production  or  in  the  accumu- 
lation of  wealth  ;  but  are  found  to  stagnate  in  a 
condition  barely  removed  above  want,  until  some- 
thing occurs  by  which  they  are  broken  up,  and  the 
strong  stimulus  of  individual  gratification  is  sub- 
stituted  for  the  less  cogent  one  of  the  general 
benefit* 

An  additional  objection  to  a  community  of  prop* 
erty  is,  that  it  necessarily  puts  an  end  to  all  indi- 
vidual liberty  of  choice  as  to  the  direction  or  amount 
of  labour.  Each  labourer  must  have  his  specific 
task  allotted  to  him  by  some  superior  power  estab* 
lished  for  the  purpose,  which  task  he  must  be  com- 
pelled to  execute  under  pain  of  some  forfeiture  or 
privation.  But  we  have  already  shown,  that  to  en- 
courage the  utmost  productiveness  of  labour,  as 
well  as  to  render  it  pleasurable,  the  labourer  must 
be  left  free  to  choose  both  the  nature  and  the  quan* 
tity  of  his  work. 

It  is  the  neglect  of  these  principles  which  is 
even  now  betraying  many  misguided  persons  into 
signal  and  mischievous  absurdities.  Such  is  the 
case  with  the  followers  of  Owen  in  this  country  and 
Great  Britain,  and  of  St.  Simon  in  France,  with 
other  similar  sects  which  are  spreading  through 
Germany  and  the  United  States.  Struck  by  the 
remarkable  fact  that  the  vast  advance  made  of  late 
years  by  civilized  nations  in  the  art  of  production, 
and  in  wealth  has  not  added  proportionately  to 
the  share  of  enjoyment  that  falls  to  the  great  body 


72  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

of  the  people,  whose  labour  is  the  primary  instru- 
ment of  all  production,  they  have  hastily  jumped  to 
the  conclusion  that,  in  order  to  ensure  the  more 
equal  distribution  of  the  products  of  industry,  all 
that  is  wanting  is  a  new  arrangement  of  society  on 
the  basis  of  a  community  of  property.  Now  no- 
thing can  look  more  pleasing  upon  paper,  or  sound 
more  enchantingly  in  a  lecture  upon  social  happi- 
ness-, than  a  proposal  to  put  an  end  to  all  the  strug- 
gles of  individual  competition,  and  the  painful  con- 
trast of  contiguous  wealth  and  poverty  ;  to  substi- 
tute love,  friendship,  and  common  enjoyment  for 
hatred,  jealousy,  and  exclusive  self-gratification, 
But  is  it  possible  to  realize  this  beatific  vision? 
There  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  supposing  so. 
Its  authors  forget  that  the  industry,  of  which,  in  the 
present  advanced  state  of  society,  they  witness  the 
fruits,  has  been  awakened,  and  has  hitherto  grown 
and  thriven,  only  under  the  shelter  of  the  institution 
of  private  property  and  the  stimulus  of  competition ; 
and  that  neither  history  nor  observation  warrants 
the  assumption  that  this  industry  could  be  main- 
tained except  on  these  conditions.  The  establish- 
ment of  a  community  of  property  would  most  prob- 
ably, by  damping  industry  and  discouraging  pro- 
duction, shortly  leave  no  property  whatever  to  di- 
vide* >The  desire  of  individual  acquisition  has  hith- 
'  erto  been  the  main  motive  to  every  exertion.  Take 
if  away,  by  sharing  the  result  of  a  man's  labours 
equally,  or  in  certain  proportions,  fixed  by  others, 
among  his  neighbours,  so  that  he  himself  shall  not 
be  specially  benefited  by  its  increase,  and  who  will 
guaranty  the  continuance  of  his  exertions  with  the 
same  vigour-  and  energy  which  he  now  evinces,  if 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  73 

he  even  continue  them  at  all?  Experience  has 
proved  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind  to  be 
such,  that  freedom  in  the  direction  of  labour,  and 
security  for  the  personal  enjoyment  or  disposal  of 
its  products,  are  the  conditions  on  which  alone  in- 
dustry  will  be  effectually  put  forth  and  production 
advanced.  The  proposal  of  a  community  of  goods 
as  a  remedy  for  their  unequal  distribution,  is  like 
an  attempt  to  cure  a  horse  of  stumbling  by  cutting 
off  his  legs. 

That  the  products  of  industry  are  at  present  too 
unequally  distributed  in  many  countries  of  Europe 
is  most  true ;  but  surely  some  remedy  may  be  de- 
vised short  of  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  prin- 
ciple itself  of  production.  That  such  means  are 
attainable  indeed,  and  this  by  the  simplest  exertion 
of  forethought  and  pre-arrangement,  I  trust  to  be 
able  to  show. 

All  wealth  is  the  product  of  labour,  but  not  of 
labour  alone.  Labour  can  create  nothing.  All 
that  it  does  is  to  alter  the  disposition  of  things  al- 
ready existing  in  what  is  usually  called  a  state  of 
nature.  To  produce  anything,  the  labourer  must 
operate  upon  some  natural  substance,  and  call  in 
the  ever-active  powers  of  nature  to  his  aid.  The 
agriculturist,  for  example,  does  not  create  corn  ; 
he  only  applies  the  seed  after  a  certain  method 
which  his  knowledge,  obtained  through  experience 
or  precept,  teaches  him  to  be  best  adapted  for  pro- 
moting its  growth ;  and  the  powers  of  the  soil  and 
the  atmosphere,  the  moisture  of  the  heavens,  and 
the  genial  warmth  of  the  sun  bring  about  the  pro- 
duction of  his  crop.  These  powers,  therefore,  of 
earth,  air,  water,  and  heat  (which  the  ancients,  in 
G 


74  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

their  ignorance  of  chymistry,  considered,  and  in 
their  equally  ignorant  though  pardonable  grati- 
tude, worshipped  as  primary  elements),  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  the  natural  affinities  of  the  mate- 
rial  substances  occurring  on  the  surface  of  the  earth 
must  co-operate  with  the  labourer,  or  his  toil  is  ut- 
terly unproductive. 

Nor  is  this  generally  enough.  There  are  few 
things  which  an  individual,  though  availing  himself 
of  all  the  powers  of  nature  within  his  reach,  can 
produce  by  himself,  or  by  a  single  effort  of  labour. 
He  must  call  in  the  aid  of  others ;  he  must  like- 
wise exert  himself  at  repeated  intervals ;  and  he 
must  avail  himself  of  the  results  of  his  previous 
labour,  or  that  of  others,  generally  of  both.  Take 
the  simplest  case — the  labour  by  which  a  man  may 
sometimes  satisfy  his  hunger  by  gathering  berries 
from  a  bush.  Even  here  nature  must  have  first 
produced  and  ripened  the  fruit  to  his  hand.  Wild 
fruits,  however,  are  but  scantily  supplied  by  na- 
ture. If,  then,  to  supply  his  wants,  a  man  desire 
animal  food,  he  must  provide  himself  with  some 
product  of  previous  labour  (his  own  or  of  others), 
a  club,  a  bow,  a  trap,  or  a  gun  ;  and  he  must  ac- 
quire, moreover,  by  previous  labour,  both  of  mind 
and  body,  a  knowledge  of  the  haunts  and  habits  of 
the  animals  he  wishes  to  take,  or  he  has  but  a 
small  chance  of  breaking  his  fast  upon  them.  If 
wild  fruits  and  animals  become  equally  scarce,  and 
he  is  led  by  Necessity,  the  fertile  mother  of  Inven- 
tion, to  sow  or  plant  the  herbs  and  trees  which  pro- 
?  duce  the  former,  and  to  domesticate  the  latter  for 
the  supply  of  his  wants,  still  more  observation, 
forethought,  contrivance,  and  preparation  are  ne- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  75 

cessary  on  his  part.  He  must  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  the  habits  and  characters  of  these  plants  and 
animals  ;  of  the  best  methods  of  cultivating,  im- 
proving, and  storing  them ;  he  must  provide  the 
proper  seed  and  plants ;  tools  with  which  to  dig 
up  the  soil,  clean  it,  and  gather  his  crops ;  fences 
to  keep  off  wild  animals,  and  confine  his  tame 
ones,  with  a  store  of  fodder  for  their  sustenance. 
All  these  preparations  are  the  result  of  previous 
labour,  accumulated  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  him 
in  the  production  of  food.  Similar  provisions  will 
be  required  to  supply  him  with  clothing,  shelter, 
and  other  desirable  objects. 

The  results  of  labour  so  accumulated,  or  provi- 
ded beforehand  for  productive  purposes,  are  called 
by  the  general  term  Capital. 

It  is  thus  made  clear,  that  labour  can  produce 
nothing,  or  scarce  anything,  without  the  aid  both 
of  capital  and  natural  substances.  These,  then, 
are  the  primary  elements  of  human  production^ 
Labour,  Capital,  and  certain  natural  powers,  which, 
as  inherent  in  the  earth  or  attached  to  its  surface, 
may  be  classed  under  the  somewhat  vague  title  of 
Land.*  And  if,  as  would  seem  proper,  we  com- 
prehend under  the  term  labour  all  the  ability  or 
productive  capacity  of  man,  natural  or  acquired ; 
under  that  of  capital  all  the  substantial  results  of 
labour,  stored  up  and  employed  in  farthering  pro- 
duction ;  and  under  that  of  land  all  the  natural 


*  "  The  word  '  land'  includes  not  only  the  face  of  the  earth, 
but  everything  under  it  or  over  it.  Therefore,  if  a  man  grants 
all  his  lands,  he  grants  thereby  all  his  mines  of  metal  and  other 
fossils,  his  woods,  his  waters,  and  his  houses,  as  well  as  his 
fields  and  meadows." — Blackstone's  Commentaries,  ii.,  c.  ii.,  p.  18. 


76  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

qualities  of  those  substances  met  with  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  which  can  be  appropriated  and  ren- 
dered available  for  productive  purposes,  we  shall 
embrace  under  these  several  heads  everything 
that  in  any  shape  co-operates  in  the  production 
of  wealth.  These  elements  of  production  we  now 
proceed  to  consider  separately,  in  the  order  in 
which  they  have  been  mentioned,  namely,  LA- 
BOUR, LAND,  and  CAPITAL. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Labour. — Exchanges  of  its  Produce. — Right  to  Free  Exchange. 
— Division  of  Labour. — Its  Advantages. — Co-operation  and 
mutual  Dependance  of  all  Labourers. — Barter. — Money. — Its 
use. — Coin. — Credit. — General  use  of. 

THE  first  essential  towards  production  is  labour. 
To  play  its  part  efficiently  in  this  great  business, 
the  labour  of  individuals  must  be  combined,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  labour  required  for  producing  cer- 
tain results  must  be  distributed  among  several  in. 
dividuals,  and  those  individuals  thus  be  enabled  to 
co-operate.* 

*  The  principle  here  referred  to  is  usually  called  the  division 
of  labour.  The  phrase  is  objectionable,  since  the  fundamental 
idea  is  that  of  concert  and  co-operation,  not  of  division.  The 
term  division  applies  only  to  the  process  ;  this  being  subdivided 
into  several  operations,  and  these  operations  being  distributed 
or  parcelled  out  among  a  number  of  operatives.  It  is  thus  a 
combination  of  labourers  effected  through  a  subdivision  of  processes. 
The  language  of  the  author  has  been  somewhat  altered  in  con- 
formity with  this  distinction.— Ed. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  77 

If  a  man  were  to  attempt  to  raise  from  the 
earth's  surface  all  the  food  required  by  himself  and 
his  family,  and  all  the  materials  for  their  clothing, 
furniture,  and  shelter,  and  likewise  to  prepare  them 
for  use,  it  is  clear  that  whatever  he  could  obtain 
in  this  way  would  only  be  of  the  poorest  and  scan- 
tiest  description ;  not,  under  the  most  favourable  cir- 
cumstances, equal  to  that  which  Robinson  Crusoe  is 
described  as  having  provided  for  himself  in  his  in- 
land solitude  ;  for  Crusoe  had  obtained  a  knowledge 
of  many  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life  by  education 
in  a  society  where  exchanges  of  labour  had  long 
been  practised.  Had  all  men  persisted  in  labour- 
ing on  a  system  of  isolation,  each  for  himself  only, 
all  must  have  remained  in  a  state  of  barbarism. 
None  of  the  useful  arts  could  have  existed.  The 
metals  would  have  slept  untouched  in  the  rock  ; 
the  timber  would  have  rotted  unhewn  in  the  forest ; 
the  soil  would  never  have  been  turned  up  by  the 
plough  or  spade.  A  few  raw  fruits  stripped  from 
the  wild  bushes,  and  the  precarious  produce  of  the 
chase  for  food  ;  clothing  of  skins,  and  the  rude 
shelter  of  the  cave  or  branch-hut,  would  have 
made  up  the  sum  total  of  human  possessions.  Un- 
der this  system,  the  numbers  of  mankind  must  have 
been  kept  within  very  narrow  limits  by  disease  and 
by  a  continual  dearth  of  subsistence.  Countries 
which  now  contain  millions  of  civilized  men,  en- 
joying, for  the  most  part,  an  abundance  of  comforts, 
could  scarcely  have  supported  as  many  hundreds 
of  half-starved  savages. 

But,  happily,  such  a  state  of  things  does  'not  long 
continue.     Man  is  formed  to  live  in  society  ;  and, 
as  we  have  seen,  necessity  suggests  to  every  soci- 
G  2 


78  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

ety  the  general  recognition  of  the  right  of  each 
individual  to  freedom  in  the  direction  of  his  indus- 
try, and  a  private  property  in  its  produce.  Now, 
wherever  these  two  fundamental  principles  of  so- 
ciety are  acknowledged,  exchanges  of  the  produce 
of  labour  immediately  must  commence  among  in- 
dividuals. One,  for  instance,  has  gathered  more 
fruits  than  he  can  consume,  and  another  has  a 
larger  stock  of  skins  fit  for  clothing  than  he. can 
make  use  of.  The  first  is  in  want  of  clothing,  the 
latter  of  fruit,  and  each  finds  his  advantage  in  ex- 
changing  the  excess  of  the  article  he  possesses  for 
that  of  the  other.  The  exchange  being  wholly 
voluntary  on  both  sides,  the  advantage  is  mutual, 
and  by  both  parties  is  considered  equal.  So  long 
as  exchanges  are  free  and  voluntary,  so  long  it  is 
evident  that  the  benefit  to  the  exchanging  parties 
is  mutual  and  equal,  otherwise  each  would  not 
.agree  to  it. 

The  right  to  freedom  of  \exchange  is  included  in 
the  right  to  a  free  disposal  of  the  produce  of  la* 
bour,  and  rests  on  the  same  ground  of  expediency ; 
since  it  is  evident  that,  in  whatever  degree  the  la- 
bourer is  at  any  time  prevented  from  exchanging 
the  produce  of  his  industry  with  others,  for  what, 
ever  he  can  obtain  for  it  most  desirable  to  himself, 
to  that  extent  are  his  exertions  discouraged,  their 
productiveness  diminished,  and  their  reward  less- 
ened. 

The  adoption  of  this  system  of  exchanging  the 
products  of  labour  makes  it  exceedingly  conve- 
nient  and  advantageous  for  each  labourer  to  confine 
himself  to  the  production  of  one,  or,  at  most,  only 
a  few  commodities,  and  to  exchange  all  that  he 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  79 

produces  beyond  his  own  consumption  with  others, 
who  in  their  turn  do  the  same.  Each  is  thus  ena- 
bled to  avail  himself  of  any  peculiar  natural  ad- 
vantages he  may  possess,  whether  of  personal  pow- 
ers or  of  position,  for  the  production  of  a  particu- 
lar  commodity  ;  and  likewise  to  acquire,  by  the 
force  of  habit  and  undivided'  attention,  a  higher 
degree  of  skill.  By  help  of  these  natural  and  ac- 
quired  advantages,  he  is  enabled  to  produce  far 
more,  and,  consequently,  to  obtain  by  exchange  a 
greater  quantity  of  the  things  he  desires  to  con- 
sume, than  he  could  by  any  possible  efforts  direct- 
ly produce  of  himself. 

It  is  by  this  division  of  labour  among  a  variety 
of  classes  of  labourers,  each  of  which  takes  a  dif- 
ferent branch  of  industry,  that  the  gross  amount 
of  production  is  vastly  augmented.  Under  the 
sanction  of  just  and  well-administered  laws,  enfor- 
cing the  fulfilment  of  contracts  for  the  exchange 
of  labour  or  of  goods,  and  giving  security  to  pri- 
vate property,  this  division  is  carried  in  some  coun- 
tries to  an  extraordinary  extent ;  and  its  effect  in 
augmenting  the  wealth  and  comforts  of  all  classes 
is  almost  incalculable.'  It  forms,  indeed,  the  true, 
as  well  as  only  practicable  community  of  goods. 

Dr.  Smith  was  the  first  writer  who  called  atten- 
tion to  the  extraordinary  increase  in  the  produc- 
tive powers  of  industry  caused  by  the  division  of 
employments,  and  his  mode  of  treating  and  illus- 
trating the  subject  has  been  but  little  improved 
upon  by  any  succeeding  writer.  He  classes  the 
advantages  gained  as, 

First,  increased  skill  and  manual  dexterity  in 
workmen.  A  nailmaker,  for  example,  by  confining 


80  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

himself  exclusively  to  the  manufacture  of  that  ar- 
ticle, will  make  two  or  three  thousand  nails  in  a 
day  ;  where  an  ordinary  smith,  who  only  turned 
his  hand  occasionally  to  this  process,  could  make 
but  as  many  hundreds.  A  man  who  wanted  such 
a  common  thing  as  a  few  pins,  might,  if  he  attempt- 
ed to  fabricate  them  for  himself,  spend  a  day  in 
making  a  dozen  of  very  bad  ones  ;  whereas,  by 
giving  their  attention  exclusively  to  this  branch  of 
industry,  and  subdividing  its  various  processes 
among  themselves,  ten  men  will,  in  a  pin  manu- 
factory, make  in  one  day  as  many  as  50,000  well- 
finished  pins,  and  their  cost  to  the  consumer  is 
proportionately  reduced.  The  rapidity  with  which 
the  operations  of  some  manufactures  are  perform- 
ed, exceeds  what  the  human  hand  could,  by  those 
who  had  never  seen  them,  be  supposed  capable  of 
acquiring. 

Secondly,  the  saving  of  time.  An  individual  who 
carries  on  many  different  employments  in  pla- 
ces often  necessarily  far  apart,  must  waste  much 
time  in  moving  from  one  to  the  other,  which  will 
be  saved  by  attaching  himself  exclusively  to  one 
occupation.  This  is  Adam  Smith's  argument ;  but 
he  might  have  thrown  a  far  stronger  light  on  the 
economy  of  time  that  results  from  a  well-regulated 
division  of  labour,  if  he  had  noticed  the  power  it 
frequently  gives  to  one  individual  to  do  the  work 
of  numbers,  quite  as  effectually  as  they  could  do  it 
themselves.  An  excellent  illustration  of  this  ben- 
efit is  given  by  Dr.  Whately*  in  the  establishment 
of  a  postoffice  and  letter-carriers,  without  which 
every  letter  would  require  a  special  messenger  to 
*  Lectures  on  Political  Economy,  Oxford,  1831. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  81 

convey  it  to  its  destination.  A  postman  who  car- 
ries  a  thousand  letters  from  the  office,  and  delivers 
them  in  remote  parts  of  the  city  in  the  course  of  a 
few  hours,  may  be  said  to  do  the  work  which,  with- 
out  such  a  contrivance,  would  engage  a  thousand 
persons  for  nearly  the  same  time.  The  carriage 
of  goods  of  all  kinds  by  persons  who  specially  ad- 
dict themselves  to  that  calling,  whether  by  sea  or 
land,  is,  of  all  branches  into  which  employment  is 
divided,  one  of  the  most  generally  useful  ;  because 
it  operates  to  a  vast  extent  in  economizing  the 
time  and  labour  of  individuals.  At  what  rate 
would  production  of  any  kind  advance,  if  every 
labourer  were  obliged  to  proceed  in  person  to  fetch 
every  article  he  required  from  the  spot  where  it 
was  raised,  and  to  carry  everything  he  produces  to 
the  place  where  it  is  to  be  consumed  ? 

It  is  evident  that,  by  these  and  many  other  con- 
trivances, there  is  not  only  effected  a  vast  econo- 
my of  time,  but  of  power  likewise,  through  the  di. 
vision  of  labour.  Without  it  a  man  would  be  of- 
ten employed  in  doing  what  a  child  <sould  equally 
well  perform ;  and  a  workman  of  consummate 
skill  or  natural  capacity  for  some  particular  branch 
of  industry,  would  be  forced  to  let  his  great  powers 
of  production  remain  dormant  for  the  greater  part 
of  his  time,  while  he  was  providing  for  his  varied 
necessities  in  a  number  of  occupations  which 
might  be  as  well  pursued  by  those  who  are  capa- 
ble of  nothing  else. 

Thirdly,  the  invention  of  tools,  machines,  and 
processes  for  shortening  labour  and  facilitating  pro- 
duction. It  is  evident  that  a  man  who  is  frequent. 
ly  shifting  from  one  occupation  to  another  for  the 


82  POLITICAL   ECONOMY* 

supply  of  his  various  wants,  will  not  be  near  so 
likely  to  invent  ingenious  methods  for  shortening 
or  saving  his  labour,  as  one  whose  attention  is  de- 
voted exclusively  to  a  particular  branch  of  indus- 
try. In  fact,  by  far  the  greater  number  of  im- 
provements in  tools  and  machinery  have  been  pro- 
duced by  the  efforts  of  workmen  and  artificers  to 
economize  their  time  and  trouble,  and  to  increase 
the  productiveness  of  their  peculiar  employments. 

Perhaps  in  no  trade  has  the  division  of  labour 
been  successfully  carried  to  so  great  an  extent  as 
in  that  of  watchmaking.  In  an  examination  be- 
fore a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was 
stated  that  there  are  a  hundred  and  two  distinct 
branches  of  this  art,  to  each  of  which  a  boy  may 
be  apprenticed. 

An  equal  gain  results  from  the  division  of  the 
labour  of  the  head  as  from  that  of  the  hands. 
"As  society  advances,  the  study  of  particular 
branches  of  science  and  philosophy  becomes  the 
principal  or  sole  occupation  of  the  most  ingenious 
men.  Chymistry  becomes  a  distinct  science  from 
natural  philosophy ;  the  physical  astronomer  separ- 
ates himself  from  the  astronomical  observer  ;  the 
political  economist  from  the  politician ;  and  each, 
meditating  exclusively  or  principally  on  his  pecu- 
liar department  of  science,  attains  to  a  degree  of 
proficiency  and  expertness  in  it  which  the  general 
scholar  seldom  or  never  reaches.  And  hence,  in 
labouring  to  promote  our  own  ends,  we  all  neces- 
sarily adopt  that  precise  course  which  is  most  ad- 
vantageous to  all.  Like  the  different  parts  of  a 
well-constructed  engine,  the  inhabitants  of  a  civil- 
ized  country  are  all  mutually  dependant  on,  and 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  83 

connected  with  each  other.  Without  any  pre- 
vious concert,  and  obeying  only  the  powerful  and 
steady  impulse  of  self-interest,  they  universally  con- 
spire to  the  same  great  end  ;*  and  contribute,  each 
in  his  respective  sphere,  to  furnish  the  greatest 
supply  of  necessaries,  luxuries,  conveniences,  and 
enjoyments,  "f 

The  system  of  the  .division  of  labour  might,  as 
we  have  said,  be  called  with  more  propriety  the 
combination  of  labour,  since  its  effect  is  the  co- 
operation of  many  labourers  to  produce  a  common 
result.  In  fact,  wherever  this  system  has  made 
any  considerable  progress,  the  society  assumes 
emphatically  a  Co-operative  character.  Every 
member  is  dependant  on  the  aid  of  others  in  ev- 
erything that  he  does  and  for  everything  he  en- 
joys. The  ploughman  cannot  turn  a  furrow  with- 
out the  help  of  the  wheelwright  and  smith  ;  these 
can  do  nothing  without  that  of  the  timber  and  iron 
merchant,  the  miner  and  the  smelter.  These, 

*  This  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  modern  school  of 
Political  Economists.  It  represents  individual  self-interest  as 
the  only  and  all-sufficient  guide  of  men  in  promoting  as  well 
the  general  good  as  their  own.  It  is  spoken  of  by  the  author  in 
a  subsequent  passage  as  an  "  unerring  instinct."  He  forgets 
that  the  law  is  often  obliged  to  interpose  in  order  to  restrain  and 
direct  this  unerring  instinct ;  and  that,  governed  by  it,  individu- 
als sometimes  engage  and  persist  in  undertakings  not  the  most 
conducive  to  their  own  interest,  much  less  to  that  of  the  public. 
The  exaggerated  notion  which  is  entertained  of  the  sagacity 
and  exclusive  supremacy  of  this  principle  of  human  nature,  forms 
a  great  and  prevailing  fallacy  in  the  writings  of  the  author  and 
of  most  other  Political  Economists.  It  recurs  so  frequently  in 
the  course  of  this  volume,  that  the  editor  has  not  been  able  in 
all  cases  to  exclude  it.  He  therefore  takes  this  opportunity  of 
entering  his  protest  against  it,  and  of  giving  the  reader  a  gener- 
al caution  in  regard  to  it. — Ed. 

t  M'Culloch,  Political  Economy,  p.  95, 


84  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

again,  must  be  assisted  by  the  ropemaker,  the 
powder  manufacturer,  the  engineer,  the  carrier,  and 
several  others;  while  all  depend  upon  the  baker, 
the  mealman,  the  butcher,  the  farmer,  the  grazier, 
&c.,  for  their  supplies  of  food ;  and  on  the  tailor, 
the  cotton  and  cloth  weavers,  the  flax  and  wool 
grower,  the  importer,  &c.,  for  their  clothing.  All 
society  is,  in  fact,  one  closely- woven  web  of  mu- 
tual dependance,  in  which  every  individual  fibre 
gains  in  strength  and  utility  from  its  entwinement 
with  the  rest.  But,  while  all  the  members  of  so- 
ciety co-operate  for  a  common  purpose,  the  in- 
crease of  the  general  welfare,  each  individual  is 
still  strictly  occupied  in  pursuing  what  he  consid- 
ers his  own  private  and  exclusive  interest  in  what- 
ever way  he  likes  best. 

And  here  is  to  be  seen  the  vast  superiority  of 
the  principle  of  freedom  over  that  of  compulsion : 
of  the  system  of  co-operation  which  springs  nat- 
urally and  spontaneously  from  the  mutual  wants  of 
men,  over  that  artificial,  forced,  and  premeditated 
system  of  co-operation,  which  of  late  has  been  put 
forward  as  the  true  rule  of  social  arrangement  by 
the  erratic  and  visionary  philanthropist,  Mr.  Owen, 
and  some  of  his  followers.  Had  the  wisest  of 
mortals,  at  any  former  period  in  the  history. of  this 
country,  been  intrusted  with  full  powers  to  frame 
and  organize  a  co-operative  system,  assigning  to 
each  individual  in  the  state  the  task  he  was  to  per- 
form for  the  common  welfare,  and  distributing  to 
each  the  share  considered  to  belong  to  him  of  the 
common  produce,  can  it  be  supposed  for  a  moment 
that  he  would  have  been  able  to  devise  arrange- 
ments capable  of  securing  anything  like  the  effi- 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  85 

ciency  and  perfection  with  which  the  principles  of 
free  labour,  private  property,  and  free  exchange 
perform  at  present  the  supply  of  all  the  varied  and 
complicated  wants  of  a  vast  population  ? 

If  we  confine  our  attention  to  the  mode  in 
which  the  inhabitants  of  a  great  metropolis  are 
provided  with  the  necessaries  of  life,  we  may  see 
the  benefits  of  this  system  of  co-operation  wonder- 
fully exemplified.  If  the  management  of  this  im- 
portant business  were  intrusted  to  a  few  individu- 
als, a  neglect,  a  mistake,  an  indiscretion  on  their 
part  might  occasionally  bring  upon  this  mighty 
centre  of  wealth  and  industry  all  the  horrors  of 
famine,'  and  compromise  the  existence  of  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people.  What  is  it,  then,  that  per- 
forms this  important  function  ?  that  supplies  this 
great  population  with  its  daily  food,  so  quietly  and 
so  effectually  ;  without  bustle,  without  even  organ- 
ization ;  without  excess,  as  without  waste ;  the  sup- 
ply so  equally  adjusted  to  the  demand,  that  the 
prices  of  butchers'  meat  and  bread  do  not,  perhaps, 
suffer  a  variation  of  a  farthing  throughout  the 
year,  which  is  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  natural 
causes  affecting  the  original  sources  of  supply? 
What  is  it  that  performs  this  daily  miracle,  which 
only  does  not  excite  our  continual  admiration  be- 
cause it  is  self-effected  with  all  the  order,  ease,  and 
certainty  of  a  great  natural  process  ?  Why,  the 
principle  of  competition ;  the  free  and  open  rivalry 
of  thousands  of  individuals,  each  acting  according 
to  his  own  discretion  in  his  own  self-appointed 
sphere  ;  each  actuated  by  the  unerring  instinct*  of 

*  It  is  the  same  unerring  instinct  that  leads  otters  to  keep  ga- 
H 


86  POLITICAL   ECONOMY* 

self-interest,  which  prompts  him  to  produce  as 
much  as  he  can  sell  with  profit,  but  no  more ;  to 
keep  the  supply  full,  but  to  prevent  excess.  An 
abundant  supply  causes  each  producer  to  lower  his 
prices,  thus  enabling  the  public  to  enjoy  that  abun- 
dance, while,  on  the  other  hand,  an  actual  or  ap- 
prehended scarcity  causes  him  to  demand  a  higher 
price,  or  to  keep  back  his  goods  in  expectation  of 
a  rise.  "  For  doing  this  the  dealers  of  provisions 
are  often  exposed  to  odium,  as  if  they  were  the 
cause  of  the  scarcity ;  while,  in  reality  (unless  op- 
erating in  secret  concert,  and  aided,  perhaps,  by 
the  vast  capital  of  banks,  when  they  richly  merit 
all  the  execration  they  receive),*  they  only  perform 
the  important  service  of  husbanding  the  supply  in 
proportion  to  its  deficiency,  and  thus  warding  off 
the  calamity  of  famine.  The  dealers  usually  de- 
serve neither  censure  for  the  scarcity  they  are  ig- 
norantly  supposed  to  produce,  nor  credit  for  the 
important  public  service  they  in  reality  perform. 
They  are  merely  occupied  in  gaining  a  fair  liveli- 
hood. And,  in  the  pursuit  of  this  object,  without 
any  comprehensive  wisdom,  or  any  need  of  it,  they 
co-operate,  unknowingly,  in  conducting  a  system 
which,  we  may  safely  say,  no  human  wisdom  di- 
rected to  that  end  could  have  conducted  so  well, 
the  system  by  which  this  enormous  population  is 
fed  from  day  to  day."f 

The  advantages  of  the  division  and  combination 

ming-tables  or  brothels.  Is  there  not  occasion,  then,  for  a  high- 
er principle  to  regulate  production  ? — Ed. 

*  It  is  proper  to  state,  that  the  words  included  in  brackets 
have  been  inserted  by  the  editor. — Ed. 

t  Whately's  Lectures,  p.  108. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  87 

of  labour  will  still  farther  appear  when  we  come 
to  treat  of  the  several  classes  into  which  society 
divides  itself  as  civilization  advances. 

The  direct  exchange  of  goods  of  -any  kind  for 
goods  is  called  barter ;  and,  as  it  is  the  most  sim- 
ple mode  of  exchange,  so  we  find  it  still  the  only 
one  in  use  among  some  uncivilized  nations.  But 
its  excessive  inconvenience  must  suggest,  even  to 
a  very  low  degree  of  intelligence,  the  advantage 
of  improving  upon  it.  Suppose  a  savage,  for  ex- 
ample, to  have  taken  and  killed  a  bullock  or  other 
large  animal,  which  he  would  find  a  difficulty  in 
consuming  alone.  He  is  desirous  of  exchanging 
the  surplus  for  a  variety  of  other  objects  which  he 
is  in  want  of.  His  neighbours,  on  their  side,  are 
anxious  to  purchase  his  meat,  but  it  is  highly  improb- 
able that  each  should  have  by  him,  and  be  able  to 
spare  for  the  purpose,  one  of  the  precise  objects  of 
which  he  is  in  pursuit.  To  obviate  this  difficulty, 
which  must  be  continually  recurring,  one  or  other 
of  two  very  simple  methods  would  suggest  them- 
selves :  the  one,  that  he  who  had  the  meat  or  other 
object  to  dispose  of  should  give  credit  to  him  who 
wanted  it,  on  his  engagement  to  repay  him  either 
the  same  or  such  other  object  as  may  be  agreed 
upon,  when  able  to  do  so,  or  at  some  definite  time ; 
the  other,  that  individuals  should  generally  keep 
by  them  a  stock  of  some  one  article  in  general 
request,  a  portion  of  which  would  be  readily  taken 
by  every  seller  in  exchange  for  his  commodity. 
The  first  of  these  methods  of  facilitating  exchanges 
is  that  of  credit,  the  second  of  money.  Both  were 
probably  coeval  in  their  origin.  Both  have  con- 
tinued  in  use  with  more  or  less  of  improvement 


88  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

among  all  nations,  civilized  as  well  as  uncivilized, 
to  the  present  day. 

Of  the  commodities  that  have  been,  and,  in  some 
instances,  still  are  in  use  as  money  by  different  na- 
tions, we  may  instance  oxen,  shells,  salt,  leather, 
and  iron,  &c.  But  in  nearly  all  countries  men 
seem  to  have  been,  at  an  early  period,  determined, 
by  irresistible  reasons,  to  employ  in  preference  for 
this  purpose  the  more  valuable  metals,  copper,  sil- 
ver, and  gold.  These  reasons  are,  their  possessing 
qualities  fitting  them  for  this  peculiar  office  in  a 
far  superior  degree  to  any  other  commodity  of  in- 
trinsic worth.  They  may  be  kept  almost  any  time 
without  loss  ;  they  are  of  such  rarity,  and  so  much 
esteemed  (that  is,  of  such  great  intrinsic  value),  that 
small  portions  of  them,  easy  to  be  carried  about 
(more  especially  of  the  two  precious  metals),  will 
exchange  for  comparatively  large  quantities  of  most 
other  goods ;  and  they  may  be  divided  without  loss 
into  any  number  of  parts,  and  reunited  again,  through 
their  fusibility,  with  the  same  ease.  The  only  dif- 
ficulty was  that  of  ascertaining  their  precise  quan- 
tity and  quality.  For  this  purpose  it  would  be 
necessary  both  to  weigh  and  assay  them.  But  as 
the  process  of  weighing  and  assaying  each  piece 
of  metal  every  time  it  was  taken  in  exchange 
would  have  been  an  endless  one,  wholly  destructive 
of  all  the  convenience  to  be  derived  from  its  use 
as  money,  it  seems  to  have  been  very  soon  discov- 
ered that  the  government  of  every  country,  in  order 
to  prevent  imposition  as  to  the  weight  or  quality  of 
these  pieces,  should  affix  a  certain  stamp  on  them  in- 
dicative of  their  quantity  and  fineness  ;  at  the  same 
time  prohibiting  by  law  the  issue,  or  mintage,  as  it 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  89 

is  called,  of  money  by  private  individuals,  and  pun- 
ishing the  imposition  upon  the  public  of false  mon- 
ey, when  detected,  by  the  heaviest  penalties.  So 
stamped,  money  is  called  coin ;  and  on  the  faith 
of  this  government  stamp,  and  the  laws  by  which 
its  imitation  is  prohibited,  coined  money  passes 
current  by  tale,  without  the  troublesome  process  of 
weighing  or  assaying.  It  is  in  this  form  that  the 
precious  metals,  gold  and  silver,  have  become  the 
universal  measure  of  the  value  of  other  commodi- 
ties, and  the  principal  instrument  or  medium  for 
their  exchange. 

But  we  have  already  mentioned  the  existence 
and  general  use  of  another  medium  for  conducting 
exchanges  besides  money  of  intrinsic  value  ;  name- 
ly, CREDIT,  or  the  confidence  placed  by  one  indi- 
vidual in  the  engagement  of  another  to  pay  him  at 
a  certain  time  a  certain  quantity  of  goods  or  mon- 
ey. This  mode  of  conducting  exchanges  has  one 
great  and  evident  advantage  over  the  use  of  money, 
namely,  that  it  saves  individuals  the  necessity  of 
keeping  by  them  a  stock  of  an  expensive  commod- 
ity, for  no  other  purposes  than  that  which  their 
credit,  if  unquestionable,  would  answer  equally 
well.  On  the  other  hand,  the  drawback  to  the  use 
of  credit,  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  is  its  insecuri- 
ty. Every  one  may  know,  in  the  circle  of  his 
neighbours  and  acquaintances,  individuals  whom, 
from  their  character  for  rectitude  and  honesty,  he 
would  trust  to  any  extent  "  with  untold  gold  ;"  but, 
unfortunately,  our  moral  nature  is  by  no  means  so 
perfect  as  to  admit  of  such  confidence  being  univer- 
sal, or  anything  like  it ;  nor,  again,  is  dishonesty 
the  only  cause  of  the  failure  of  engagements.  In 
H  2 


90  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

order,  therefore,  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  frauds 
upon  the  over-credulous  or  other  loss,  it  has  been 
found"  necessary,  in  all  countries,  for  the  govern- 
ment to  enforce  by  laws  the  fulfilment  of  engage- 
ments :  a  necessity  parallel  to  that  which  led,  as 
has  just  been  explained,  to  the  laws  for  regulating 
the  coinage  of  money.  Supported  by  this  guaran- 
tee, credit  has  performed  its  part  as  an  instrument 
of  exchange  in  all  parts  and  countries  where  com- 
merce has  made  any  progress,  and  that  to  an  ex^ 
tent  seldom,  perhaps,  fully  recognised  by  writers  on 
these  subjects.  Because  the  precious  metals,  coin* 
fid  or  uncoined,  have  been  almost  always  and  ev* 
erywhere  employed  as  the  measure  of.  value,  they 
have  been  hastily  concluded  to  have  been  likewise 
the  principal,  if  riot  the  only,  instrument  of  exchange. 
But  these  two  things  are  perfectly  distinct,  and  a 
very  little  examination  would  suffice  to  convince 
us  that  the  employment  of  credit  in  commerce,  as 
a  medium  of  exchange,  has  been  very  considerably 
underrated ;  that  it  has  always  carried  on  a  much 
larger  amount  of  business  than  money  ;  and,  indeed, 
that,  without  it,  commerce  could  have  made  but 
very  little  progress,  cramped  and  fettered  as  it 
would  have  been  by  the  disadvantages  incident  to 
the  use  of  metallic  money,  which  is,  in  truth,  only 
a  somewhat  superior  kind  of  barter. 

This  inquiry,  however,  may  be  better  reserved 
for  a  future  occasion.  I  will  only  mention  here 
three  facts,  illustrative  of  the  vastly  superior  extent 
to  which,  in  commercial  countries,  credit  is  neces- 
sarily employed  as  an  instrument  of  exchange  be- 
yond real  or  metallic  money.  These  are,  first,  that 
the  entire  commerce  of  Scotland,  both  foreign  and 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  91 

domestic,  is  carried  on  without  the  practical  use  of 
a  single  gold  piece.  Secondly,  that,  at  the  banker's 
clearing-house  in  London,  exchange  transactions 
are  daily  settled  to  the  extent  of  five  millions  ster- 
ling— on  some  days  of  thirteen  millions — without 
the  intervention  of  any  coin  whatever,  and  by  the 
-employment  of  a  floating  balance  of  only  about 
£200,000  in  Bank,  of  England  notes,  themselves 
.merely  representing  the  credit  of  that  establish- 
ment. Thirdly,  that  there  is  at  every  moment  in 
existence  in  England  an  aggregate  mass  of  trans- 
ferable credit  in  the  shape  of  book  debts,  foreign 
and  inland  bills  of  exchange,  mortgages,  annuities, 
and  other  moneyed  liabilities,  including  the  great  na- 
tional debt  itself,  to  an  extent,  as  regards  the  whole 
empire,  certainly  of  several  thousand  millions  in  val- 
ue, the  whole  of  which  is  strictly  in  continual  employ- 
ment as  a  medium  of  exchange ;  an  instrument, 
that  is,  whereby  one  individual  obtains  possession, 
by  consent,  of  the  produce  or  property  of  another ; 
while  the  amount  of  real  or  metallic  currency  cir- 
culating through  the  same  countries  does  not,  per- 
haps, exceed  thirty  millions,  and  might  probably,  as 
in  Scotland,  "be  dispensed  with  altogether,  without 
affecting  in  the  least  the  extent  of  this  prodigious 
niass  of  transactions  on  credit. 


92  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Wages. — Ample  and  continually  increasing  Wages  secured  to 
Labourers  by  the  Principles  of  Free  Labour  and  Free  Ex- 
change.— Inequality  of  Wages  in  different  Employments  and 
of  different  Individuals. — Ability,  even  of  the  lowest  Class, 
increases,  and  its  Reward  ought  to  rise  proportionately,  with 
the  Progress  of  Civilization. 

HOWEVER  directed,  the  chief  motive  to  labour, 
freely  exercised,  must  be  the  result  accruing  to  the 
labourer.  This  is  technically  called  his  wages. 
And,  since  the  more  productive  labour  is  rendered 
by  machinery,  by  subdivision  of  employments,  and 
facilitation  of  exchanges,  the  greater  must  be  the 
aggregate  quantity  of  the  good  things  of  life  pro- 
duced, it  seems  self-evident  that  the  share  falling 
to  the  lot  of  each  individual  labourer,  as  his  rec- 
ompense or  wages,  ought  to  be  proportionately 
augmented.  And  such  doubtless  would  be  the 
case  were  the  labourer,  his  employer,  and  other 
joint  partners  in  the  work  of  production  left  free 
to  apportion  among  themselves  thejr  respective 
shares,  untrammelled  on  the  one  hand  by  unwise 
laws,  and  on  the  other  by  unfair  combinations  ;  it 
being  supposed,  of  course,  that  each  party  is  honest 
and  moderately  intelligent.  The  great  principles, 
in  short,  of  free  labour,  and  free  disposal  of  its 
produce,  would  seem,  in  such  case,  amply  suffi- 
cient to  secure  an  equitable  distribution  of  proper- 
ty among  the  several  classes  who  contribute  to  its 
creation ;  and  the  benefits  they  thence  derive 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  93 

would  so  stimulate  their  exertions  as  to  cause  a 
continued  increase,  not  merely  in  the  wealth  of  the 
society,  but  also  in  the  share  of  that  wealth  falling 
to  the  lot  of  any  individual  member.  We  believe 
that  if,  in  some  societies  which  have  reached  a 
highly  artificial  and  complicated  state,  this,  its  nat- 
ural and  legitimate  consequence,  has  not  always  fol- 
]owed  every  improvement  in  the  means  of  produc- 
tion, it  must  necessarily  be  owing,  and  can  in  every 
case,  by  some  little  attention,  be  traced  either  to 
the  want  of  proper  education  among  the  people,  or 
to  the  interference  of  erroneous  institutions — an 
interference  adopted  sometimes,  doubtless,  in  igno- 
rance of  its  mischievous  effects  to  the  community 
at  large,  but  sometimes  also  with  more  or  less  of  a 
fraudulent  intention  of  diverting  the  produce  of  in- 
dustry into  other  hands  than  those  into  which  the 
just  system  of  free  labour  and  free  exchange  would 
distribute  it. 

But,  under  a  system  of  free  and  equitable  ex- 
change,  the  recompense  (wages)  of  every  labourer 
will  be  by  no  rheans  equal,  nor  even  exactly  pro- 
portioned to  the  severity  or  duration  of  his  em- 
ployment. It  must  be  determined  by  the  value  of 
his  produce  in'the  market.  And  this  will  increase 
in  proportion  to  the  talent,  skill,  and  application  of 
the  labourer,  or  any  other  circumstances  which 
may  render  his  labour  more  productive  than  that  of 
another.  A  man  whose  natural  powers  of  body  or 
mind  enable  him  to  contribute  more  efficiently  to 
the  general  work  of  production  than  another,  may 
equitably  expect,  and  will,  under  the  system  of 
free  exchange,  receive  a  larger  share  of  the  gross 
general  produce.  The  same  is  true  of  one  who,  by 


94  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

advantages  of  education  or  continued  application, 
has  acquired  a  superior  degree  of  skill  or  knowl- 
edge in  any  of  the  arts  of  industry,  and  of  one, 
too,  whose  reputation  for  integrity  and  vigilance 
in  his  employer's  service  secures  him  peculiar 
confidence.  The  increased  reward  thus  obtained 
by  increased  productiveness  is  the  motive  and  ne- 
cessary stimulus  to  most  of  those  efforts  for  ren- 
dering labour  more  productive,  which  have  carried 
mankind  forward  from  the  savage  to  the  civilized 
state,  and  must  be  depended  upon  for  inciting  him 
to  yet  farther  advances.  Every  attempt  to  equal- 
ize the  wages  of  different  employments  or  individ- 
uals by  compulsory  arrangements  has  the  certain 
effect  of  damping  the  ardour  of  industry,  putting  a 
stop  to  improvement,  and  thus  checking  the  march 
of  production. 

The  powers  of  an  individual  to  produce,  or  co- 
operate in  the  production  of  wealth,  may  be  called 
his  ability.  The  lowest  degree  of  ability  consists  of 
the  rude,  unskilled  powers  of  the  common  work- 
man. The  great  body  of  labourers  in  most  coun- 
tries are  possessed  of  little  more  than  this  inferior 
ability.  But  the  recompense  (wages)  of  this  low- 
est class  of  labourers  varies,  notwithstanding,  very 
much  in  different  countries.  In  a  savage  state  of 
society,  for  example,  mere  human  strength  can  do 
but  little,  for  want  of  tools  with  which  to  work,  and 
instructions  how  to  employ  them.  By  practice, 
and  the  exercise  of  his  native  ingenuity  in  contri- 
ving expedients  and  fabricating  instruments,  a 
clever  savage  may  increase  the  productiveness,, 
and,  consequently,  the  reward  of  his  labour  far  be- 
yond that  of  his  companions  ;  but,  even  under  the 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  95 

most  favourable  circumstances,  his  exertions  will 
not  be  near  so  productive  as  those  of  the  most  stu- 
pid clown  in  a  civilized  country,  armed  with  the 
instruments  which  the  accumulated  ingenuity  of 
ages  has  contrived,  and  applying  them,  however 
mechanically,  after  those  methods  which  experi* 
ence  has  proved  to  be  most  efficient.  On  this  ac- 
count, the  inferior  degrees  of  ability  will  obtain  far 
higher  wages  in  a  highly  advanced  than  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  society.  The  produce  of  the 
daily  labour  of  an  English  ploughman,  shepherd, 
or  common  mechanic,  is  at  present  probably  three 
times  as  much  as  that  of  similar  classes  of  labour- 
ers in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  six  times  as  much 
as  at  the  period  of  the  Conquest.  If  their  wages, 
or  the  amount  of  the  necessaries  and  conveniences 
of  life  which  they  obtain  in  return  for  their  labour, 
have  not  increased  quite  in  the  same  proportions, 
it  must  be  in  consequence  of  the  faulty  direction 
given  to  the  distribution  of  the  produce  of  labour 
by  the  causes  to  which  we  have  already  referred. 
In  the  same  way,  the  productiveness  of  an  English 
day-labourer  is  perhaps  twice  as  great  as  that  of  a 
Frenchman,  four  times  that  of  a  Russian,  and  six 
or  eight  times  that  of  a  Hindoo.  His  wages 
ought,  therefore,  to  be  proportionate,  and  probably 
would  be  so  under  an  equitable  system  of  econom- 
ical policy. 

The  reward  of  the  industry  of  the  higher  class- 
es of  labourers  will  in  the  same  manner  rise  with 
its  productiveness.  An  artisan  of  superior  natural 
abilities,  who  has  had  the  advantage  of  the  instruc- 
tions of  a  master  in  some  peculiar  business,  and 
has  applied  himself  assiduously  to  acquire  the 


96  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

manual  dexterity  and  the  practical  arts  of  his  trade, 
has  gained  a  degree  of  ability  which,  as  contrib- 
uting much  more  largely  than  that  of  an  inferior 
workman  to  the  marketable  means  of  enjoyment, 
is  enabled  to  command  in  the  market  a  propor- 
tionately larger  share  of  the  general  stock.  The 
wages,  or  market  value,  of  personal  ability  of  any 
kind  will  depend  partly  on  the  degree  of  study  or 
application,  and  partly  on  the  amount  of  time  re- 
quired on  the  average  to  produce  it.  It  is  also 
influenced,  in  a  great  degree,  by  the  more  or  less 
exclusive  possession  of  ability  of  any  description* 
It  is  the  rarity  of  particular  kinds  of  talent  that 
confers  the  greater  part  of  their  value  upon  them.. 
The  average  wages  of  fiddlers  is,  perhaps,  taking 
into  consideration  the  time  spent  in  acquiring  the 
art,  little  more  than  that  of  ploughmen  ;  but  when 
the  combination  of  rare  genius  with  equally  rare 
assiduity  creates  a  Paganini,  he  is  able  to  com. 
mand  almost  any  price  in  return  for  his  exertions. 
There  occurs  but  one  Lawrence  in  a  century,, 
and  this  it  is  which  enables  such  an  artist  to  put  a 
value  on  his  productions,  perhaps  a  hundred  times 
greater  than  an  ordinary  dauber  is  happy  to  get 
for  the  same  quantity  of  paint,  canvass,  time,  and 
trouble. 

But  the  possessor  of  superior  ability  in  any  line 
of  industry  is  not  only  enabled  to  put  a  higher 
value  on  the  produce  of  his  labour  directly  exert- 
ed, he  has  it  likewise  in  his  power,  in  many  in- 
stances,  to  communicate  that  ability  to  others  by 
instruction  ;  and  while  he  requires,  of  course,  pay- 
ment from  them  in  exchange  for  such  instruction, 
he  puts  it  in  their  power  to  obtain,  in  turn,  a  pro- 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  97 

portionately  higher  recompense  for  their  own  in- 
dustry. The  value  of  such  instructions  is  some- 
limes  heightened  by  the  communication  of  secret 
processes,  which  give  to  their  possessor  a  decided 
advantage  over  his  competitors  in  the  same  line  of 
art.  In  general,  however,  it  consists  in  the  com- 
munication of  a  variety  of  delicate  and  difficult 
manipulations,  such  as  can  only  be  learned  by 
actual  exhibition  and  repeated  experiment  under 
the  eye  and  tuition  of  an  experienced  master.* 
The  high  premiums  of  apprenticeship  taken  by 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  superior  departments 

*  A  remarkable  instance  in  proof  of  the  necessity  of  per- 
sonal instruction  in  some  of  the  useful  arts,  was  related  by 
Mr.  Ostler,  a  manufacturer  of  glass  beads  and  other  toys,  to 
the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  artisans  and 
machinery;  and  is  quoted  in  Mr.  Babbage's  valuable  work 
on  the  Economy  of  Manufactures.  Mr.  Ostler,  it  seems,  had 
received,  some  years  since,  an  order  for  upward  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds'  worth  of  doWs  eyes.  But,  notwithstanding  his 
having  some  of  the  most  ingenious  glass  toymaker's  in  the 
kingdom  in  his  service,  he  could  not  succeed  in  making  the 
article,  and  was  obliged  to  renounce  the  order.  "  About 
eight  months  ago,"  he  continues,  "  I  accidentally  met  with 
a  poor  fellow  who  had  impoverished  himself  by  drinking, 
and  who  was  dying  in  a  consumption,  in  a  state  of  great 
want.  I  showed  him  ten  sovereigns ;  and  he  said  he  would 
instruct  me  in  the  process.  He  was  in  such  a  state  that  he 
could  not  bear  the  effluvia  of  his  own  lamp  ;  but,  though  1 
was  very  conversant  with  the  manual  part  of  the  business, 
and  it  related  to  things  I  was  daily  in  the  habit  of  seeing,  I  felt 
I  could  do  nothing  from  his  description.  (I  mention  this  to 
show  how  difficult  it  is  to  convey  by  description  the  mode  of 
working.)  He  took  me  into  his  garret,  where  the  poor  fellow 
had  economized  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  actually  used  the  en- 
trails and  fat  of  poultry  from  Leadenhall  market  to  save  oil 
(the  price  of  the  article  having  been  latterly  so  much  reduced 
by  competition  at  home).  In  an  instant,  before  I  had  seen  him 
make  three,  1  felt  competent  to  make  a  gross ;  and  the  difference 
between  his  mode  and  that  of  my  own  workmen  was  so  trifling, 
that  I  felt  the  utmost  astonishment." 
I 


98  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

of  the  useful  and  ornamental  arts,  arise  chiefly 
from  this  source  ;  and  the  proportionately  high 
wages  that  are  earned  by  journeymen  or  masters 
in  these  several  callings  follow  necessarily  from 
the  expensive  course  of  instruction  they  have  un- 
dergone, the  assiduity  with  which  they  have  en- 
deavoured to  perfect  themselves  in  their  art,  and 
the  more  or  less  rare  excellence  to  which,  by  these 
means,  aided  perhaps  by  superior  natural  abilities, 
they  have  attained  in  its  practice. 

In  this  way  the  skill  or  acquired  ability  of  one 
man  is  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  or  from 
master  to  pupil,  through  successive  stages,  accu- 
mulating, as  it  passes  on,  the  added  improvements 
of  its  various  possessors.  But,  as  every  pupil  or 
apprentice  is  enabled  to  instruct  a  considerable 
number  of  others,  there  is  a  constant  tendency  in 
every  improved  process  or  secret  to  spread  through 
a  wider  circle.  There  are,  moreover,  many  pro- 
cesses  of  art  which  can  be  communicated  by  written 
directions,  without  personal  exhibition  ;  and  these, 
sooner  or  later,  transpire  and  become  extensively 
known.  This  is  the  case  especially  wherever  the 
blessing  of  a  press,  more  especially  of  a,  free  press, 
exists.  Once  committed  to  printing,  a  receipt  or 
peculiar  process  travels  in  all  directions,  not  only 
through  the  country  where  it  was  invented,  but 
through  many  others  likewise,  and  is  handed  down, 
with  little  or  no  chance  of  loss,  to  distant  ages  and 
generations.  It  is  to  the  splendid  invention  of  let- 
ters and  printing,  and  to  the  freedom  with  which 
knowledge  now  circulates,  that  we  owe  the  rapidi- 
ty with  which  the  process  of  mutual  instruction  in 
the  productive  arts  is  now  daily  increasing  the 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  99 

wealth  of  modern  societies.  Without  their  aid, 
example  and  precept  might  hand  down  some  im- 
provements in  human  ability ;  but  they  would  be 
subject  to  frequent  loss  and  destruction  ;  and  the 
intercourse  of  minds  must,  under  such  circumstan- 
ces, be  comparatively  slow,  torpid,  and  unfruitful. 

These  are  the  things  that  constitute  "useful 
knowledge."  The  vast  superiority  in  the  produc- 
tiveness of  a  Watt,  an  Arkwright,  or  a  Wedge- 
wood,  over  that  of  a  clever  savage,  is  almost  en- 
tirely owing  to  the  influence  of  accumulated  abili- 
ty of  this  nature  stored  up  in  books,  and  operating 
in  the  development  of  intellectual  powers,  which 
would  otherwise  have  remained  dormant  and  use- 
less towards  enriching  the  individual,  or,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  three  great  men  we  have  named,  to- 
wards the  lasting  benefit  of  the  whole  human  race. 
Such  wonderful  inventions,  when  thus  proclaimed 
to  the  world,  become  public  property,  a  gratuitous 
addition  of  vast  amount  to  the  ability  of  all  pres- 
ent and  future  labourers  in  the  peculiar  arts  to 
which  they  are  applicable. 

It  may,  it  is  true,  be  long  before  the  Calmucs  or 
Chinese  avail  themselves  of  the  increased  power 
such  inventions  put  at  their  disposal ;  but,  in  the 
mean  time,  even  these  distant  nations  profit  from 
them  through  the  greater  cheapness  of  the  com- 
modities with  which  they  are  supplied,  by  the 
growing  ability  of  Europeans  and  Americans.  And, 
in  the  mean  time,  the  latter  are  improving  even 
upon  these  inventions  far  more  rapidly  than  other 
nations  can  adopt  them ;  so  that  the  superiority 
they  have  once  obtained  is  continually  increasing 
rather  than  diminishing. 


100  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

We  have  hitherto  spoken  of  wages  (real  wages) 
in  the  sense  of  the  quantity  of  the  necessaries  and 
conveniences  which  the  labourer  can  command  in 
the  market  in  exchange  for  his  services.  Such  ap. 
pears  to  be  the  most  correct  meaning  of  the  expres. 
sion.  But,  in  common  language,  wages  are  gen- 
erally  understood  as  referring  to  the  sum  in  money 
(money-wages)  which  the  labourer  obtains.  These 
two  meanings  are,  of  course,  very  distinct.  The 
money-wages  of  a  labourer  may  rise,  while  the 
quantity  of  necessaries  and  comforts  he  can  obtain 
in  exchange  for  them,  and  upon  which  alone  his 
condition  in  fact  depends,  is  decreasing.  This  was 
notoriously  the  case  in  Britain  in  the  early  part  of 
the  present  century,  when,  owing  to  a  succession  of 
bad  harvests,  the  money-price  of  necessaries  reach- 
ed an  exorbitant  elevation  ;  and,  though  the  money- 
wages  of  nearly  every  class  of  labourers  rose  like- 
wise, their  purchasing  power  was  greatly  lessened. 
It  was  the  case,  again,  in  our  own  country  in  the 
years  1836,  7,  &c.,  when,  owing  to  the  sudden 
expansion  of  the  currency  and  other  causes,  the 
prices  of  articles  of  prime  necessity  to  the  labourer 
rose  so  much  more  rapidly  than  his  wages,  that, 
though  the  latter  did  increase,  his  command  over 
such  articles  was  continually  diminishing. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that,  in  a  country 
which  has  already  made  great  progress  in  the  arts 
of  production,  and  is  still  daily  improving  upon 
them,  the  remuneration  for  labour,  even  of  the 
lowest  kind,,  ought  to  be  considerable,  as  compared 
with  earlier  periods,  and  ought,  likewise,  always  to 
be  on  the  increase  ;  never,  unless  locally  and  tern- 
porarily,  to  fall  off  in  its  amount. 


ECON 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  101 

If,  therefore,  in  such  a  country,  the  wages  of  the 
mass  of  labourers  are  at  any  time  not  sufficient  to 
command  for  them  a  competence  of  the  necessaries 
and  comforts  of  life  ;  if  wages  are  found,  during  pe- 
riods of  considerable  duration,  through  extensive 
districts,  and  in  a  variety  of  occupations,  to  de- 
crease in  amount  instead  of  advancing,  we  may 
rest  assured  that  such  a  state  of  things  can  only  be 
the  result  of  something  faulty  in  the  institutions,  or 
in  the  intellectual  and  moral  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple. And  the  study  of  the  naturally  just  and  equi- 
table principles  on  which  such  institutions  ought  to 
have  been  modelled — and,  when  proved  to  be  in 
fault,  ought  to  be  corrected — becomes  one  of  the 
most  important  and  interesting  subjects  of  inquiry 
to  which  the  attention  of  any  reasonable  friend  to 
humanity  can  be  addressed. 

Before,  however,  we  can  prosecute  our  research- 
es into  the  nature  of  such  errors  and  the  mode  of 
correcting  them,  we  must  first  examine  the  other 
elements  which  co-operate  with  labour  in  the  great 
business  of  production ;  and  the  owners  of  which 
have,  of  course,  an  equal  right  with  the  labourers 
to  share  in  the  joint  produce. 

These  are,  as  we  have  seen.  Land  and  Capital. 
12 


102  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Land.— Its  Appropriation  essential  to  Production,— History  and 
Causes  of  its  Appropriation  in  different  Ages  and  Countries. — 
In  the  East  by  the  Sovereign. — In  Europe  by  the  Aristocracy. 
— In  America  by  the  People.— Influence  of  these  different 
Systems  on  Production  and  National  Welfare.  —  Natural 
Laws  of  Property  in. 

POLITICAL  Economists,  following  the  example  of 
lawyers,  comprehend  under  the  term  land,  when 
speaking  of  it  as  a  source  of  wealth,  all  the  natural 
powers  of  the  surface  of  the  globe  which  can  be 
made  available  for  the  use  of  man,  including,  to- 
gether  with  its  soils,  mines,  quarries,  and  waters, 
the  animals  and  vegetables  found  thereon  in  a  wild 
state. 

These  gifts  of  Nature,  our  common  mother,  are 
poured  forth  in  all  but  infinite  profusion  for  the 
common  use  of  mankind.  But,  in  order  to  avail 
himself  of  them  for  his  various  purposes,  man  must, 
as  has  been  shown,  appropriate  them  by  his  la- 
bour ;  and,  having  done  so.  he  acquires  an  equita- 
ble title  to. their  possession,  founded  on  this  labour. 
If  fruit  grew  spontaneously,  on  herb  or  tree,  in  suf- 
ficient abundance  to  supply  the  wants  of  all,  the  la- 
bour of  gathering  were  alone  necessary  to  give  an 
individual  an  equitable  property  in  fruit.  With 
the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  many  of  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  and  some  wild  animals,  this  rule  indeed  holds 
good  in  law  at  the  present  day,  even  in  countries 
where  society  has  -in  many  respects  attained  a  most 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  103 

artificial  and  complicated  condition.*  But  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  and  the  animals  most  fitted  for 
food,  there  is  no  such  spontaneous  abundance  ;  and, 
in  order  to  ensure  the  production  of  a  sufficiency 
of  these  for  the  wants  of  man,  it  is  necessary  that 
much  pains  should  be  taken  by  some  one  ;  that  the 
soil  be  enclosed  with  fences  to  prevent  the  ravages 
of  wandering  animals,  broken  up  by  tillage,  planted 
and  sown  with  the  fitting  vegetables,  and  the  grow- 
ing  crops  protected,  as  well  as  gathered.  Now  no 
one,  it  is  plain,  would  take  the  trouble  to  enclose 
and  cultivate  a  piece  of  ground,  and  plant  or  sow 
it  several  months,  perhaps  years,  before  the  crop 
can  be  fit  to  gather,  unless  he  were  secured  (so 
far,  at  least,  as  human  confidence  can  be  secured) 
in  the  exclusive  privilege  of  gathering  and  appro- 
priating the  fruits  of  his  labour  when  ready  for 
use.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  land  em- 
ployed for  breeding,  rearing,  and  fattening  domes- 
tic animals.  For  this  simple  reason,  it  becomes 
absolutely  necessary,  in  order  to  admit  of  the  pro- 
duction of  artificial  crops  or  stocks  of  cattle,  to  se- 
cure in  the  strongest  possible  manner  a  property  in 
land  to  him  who  encloses  and  cultivates  it,  or  in 
any  way  renders  it  productive.  And  this  necessi- 
ty has  been  perceived  and  acted  on  throughout  all 
the  known  and  cultivated  regions  of  the  globe, 
though  in  a  great  variety  of  ways  ;f  some  of  which 

*  Our  law  maxims  with  regard  to  fish,  game,  and  such  things 
as  are  "ferae  natures"  assert  that  they  are  "  nullius  in  bonis"  or  no 
man's  goods  ;  and  that  of  them  "  Capiat  qui  capere possit,"  catch 
who  catch  can.  A  qualified  property  is  still  to  be  acquired  in 
these  and  some  other  things  "per  industriam." — See  Blackstone, 
ii.,  391. 

t  The  exclusive  property  in  wells  appears  from  Scripture  to 


104  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

afford  more,  some  less,  encouragement  than  others 
to  production.  That  system  is  evidently  to  be 
preferred  which  affords  the  most. 

It  has,  indeed,  seldom  been  sufficiently  remark, 
ed  by  those  who  have  studied  the  nature  and  causes 
of  national  wealth,  to  what  a  pre-eminent  degree 
the  social  and  economical  condition  of  a  people  is 
influenced  by  the  laws  and  customs  that  prevail 
among  them  respecting  the  occupation  and  owner- 
ship of  land.  There  is  no  exaggeration  in  the  as- 
sertion that,  by  these  circumstances  almost  alone, 
the  position  of  any  nation  in  the  scale  of  civiliza- 
tion is  practically  determined.  Nor  will  any  one 
be  inclined  to  doubt  this  when  he  adverts  to  the 
simple  consideration  that  it  is  from  the  land,  and  the 
land  alone,  that  nations  derive  as  well  the  whole 
of  the  food  on  which  they  are  supported,  as  the 
raw  materials  out  of  which,  by  their  industry  and 
ingenuity,  they  elaborate  all  the  other  necessaries, 
comforts,  and  luxuries  of  life  ;  so  that  it  must 
chiefly  depend  upon  the  more  or  less  easy  and 
equitable  terms  on  which  the  cultivation  of  the  soil 
by  those  who  possess  the  means,  is  permitted  or 
encouraged,  whether  the  production  of  every  kind 
of  wealth  be  restrained  within  the  narrowest  limits, 
or  be  developed  to  the  utmost  extent  of  which  hu- 
man industry  is  capable. 

have  been  established  in  the  first  digger  or  occupant,  even  in 
places  where  the  ground  and  herbage  remained  yet  in  common. 
See  Blackstone,  ii.,  c.  i.,  p.  5,  who  also  states,  "  It  is  agreed  upon 
all  hands  that  occupancy  gave  the  original  right  to  the  permanent 
property  in  the  substance  pf  the  earth,  which  excludes  every 
one  else  but  the  owner  from  the  use  of  it."  Occupancy  by  use 
and  improvement  must  be  intended,  though  Blackstone  does 
not  clearly  express  this.  It  is  not  probable  that  any  individual 
would  have  been  allowed  to  appropriate  more  land  than  he  could 
occupy  in  this  sense. — Id.,  p.  5. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  105 

The  terms  on  which  the  cultivators  of  the  soil 
are  admitted  to  its  occupation  vary  materially  in 
different  parts  of  the  globe  ;  and  a  review  of  these 
different  customs,  and  of  the  influence  they  several- 
ly exercise  over  the  moral,  economical,  and  politi- 
cal condition  of  the  countries  in  which  they  prevail, 
would  in  itself  be  a  work  of  great  interest.  The 
space  we  can  afford  to  this  branch  of  our  subject 
is  less  than  it  deserves. 

I.  Wherever  despotic  power  exists,  whether  the 
result  of  domestic  treachery  or  foreign  invasion, 
there  property,  as  well  in  land  as  of  all  other 
kind — and  even  life  itself — is,  of  course,  held  only 
at  the  will  of  the  ruler.  And,  accordingly*  we  find, 
in  countries  which  appear  to  have  been  subjected  to 
this  form  of  government,  that  the  exclusive  proprie- 
torship of  the  land,  as  the  primary  source  of  all 
wealth,  has  been  claimed  by  the  sovereign.  - 

In  some  parts  of  the  world  this  claim  has  been 
practically  exercised  up  to  the  present  day,  in 
others  but  nominally  ;  the  right  of  occupying  and 
using  the  soil  having  been  transferred  by  grant  of 
the  sovereign  to  inferior  holders,  and  his  claim  con- 
tinued,  perhaps,  only  in  name.  Throughout  all 
Asia,  from  China  to  Turkey  (excepting  only  the 
Russian  provinces),  the  revenue  of  the  ruler  is  still, 
and  always  has  been,  raised  from  the  cultivators  of 
the  soil  by  a  sort  of  land-tax,  consisting  of  a  pro- 
portion of  the  produce,  which  varies,  as  may  natu- 
rally be  imagined,  with  the  tyranny  or  mildness  of 
the  reigning  sovereign,  and  the  greater  or  less  pow- 
ers of  exaction  with  which  the  intermediate  collect- 
ors are  armed.  The  cultivator  is  by  some  persons 


106  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

considered  to  be,  throughout  this  large  portion  of  the 
globe,  the  legal  owner  of  his  plot  of  land.  And,  in- 
deed, he  has  some  of  the  supposed  characteristics  of 
ownership,  since  he  is  empowered,  in  general,  to 
mortgage,  sell,  or  alienate  it ;  and  it  descends  at  his 
decease,  if  not  otherwise  disposed  of,  in  equal  por- 
tions to  his  heirs.  There  is,  however,  an  almost  in- 
finite variety  in  the  local  customs  which  determine 
this  tenure  ;  every  petty  province  having  some  mi- 
nute  peculiarity.  And  it  is  even  yet  a  matter  of  dis- 
pute among  writers  who  have  deeply  studied  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  Indian  empire,  which  of  the  three 
parties  who  have  everywhere  a  joint  interest  in  the 
land,  the  peasant-cultivator  (or  ryot),  the  tax-collect- 
or (or  zemindar),  or  the  sovereign,  is  its  real  legiti- 
mate proprietor.  In  practice,  each  has  a  lien  upon 
its  produce,  and  to  that  extent  each  may  be  reckon- 
ed its  owner.  The  tax-collector,  like  the  ryot,  has 
an  hereditary  and  transferable  interest  in  his  post, 
which  brings  him  a  revenue  in  a  per  centage  of  the 
sum  he  collects  from  the  ryots  for  the  sovereign. 

The  question,'  however,  as  to  who  is  the  legal 
owner  of  the  soil,  seems  to  us  susceptible  of  a  very 
simple  solution.  Throughout  the  East,  the  will  of 
the  sovereign  has  always  been  law  ;  so  that  to  hold 
land  by  that  will  was  to  hold  it  by  law.  It  is  only 
when  law  acquires  a  power  above  that  of  the  sov- 
ereign that  private  property  in  its  true  sense  can 
be  said  to  exist.  We  must  not  ask,  then,  with  re- 
gard to  Asia,  what  is  the  law,  but  what  is  the  cus- 
tom and  the  fact ;  and  the  answer  is,  that  the  ne- 
cessity of  affording  to  the  peasant-cultivator  some 
guarantee  for  his  continued  occupation  of  the  soil 
he  ploughs  and  sows,  in  order  to  induce  him  to 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  107 

labour,  has  compelled  Asiatic  despots  to  allow  him 
a  partial  and  limited  proprietorship ;  that  is  to  say, 
they  have  permitted  him  and  his  descendants  to 
occupy  and  cultivate  his  spot  of  ground  on  con- 
dition  of  paying  whatever  proportion  of  its  produce 
the  sovereign  chooses  directly,  or  through  his  of. 
fibers,  to  exact.  And  he  has  seldom,  or  never, 
been  content  to  take  less  than  could  be  extorted  by 
threat  or  violence.  The  cultivator  is,  then,  in  law, 
custom,  and  fact,  the  slave  of  his  sovereign,*  and 
his  property  is  wholly  at  the  command  of  the  latter. 
If,  therefore,  as  seems  presumable,  the  owner  of  land 
can  only  be  defined  as  one  who  has  the  right  of  prof- 
iting by  whatever  circumstances  may  improve  the 
value  of  his  land,  the  ryot  has  been  always  consid- 
ered, in  theory,  the  landowner,  never  in  practice* 
He  was  continually  promised  this  right  by  sover- 
eigns or  their  collectors,  who  wished  to  tempt  him 
to  improve  his  land ;  but  who,  so  soon  as  it  was 
improved,  raised  their  demands  on  him  in  propor- 
tion, so  as  to  leave  him  none  of  the  benefit. 

The  Asiatic  system  is  evidently  a  compromise 
between  the  usurped  and  unlimited  power  of  the 
despot,  and  the  ancient  and  natural  privilege  of 
private  property  as  the  result  of  appropriation  by 
labour ;  a  compromise  extorted  from  the  chief  by 
the  necessity  of  persuading  his  people  to  exercise 
their  industry,  lest  he  should  prove,  like  Sultan 
Mahmoud  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  a  ruler  only 
over  owls  and  ruins,  barren  plains  and  dead  car. 
casses. 

*  He  is  punishable  with  stripes  if  he  neglect  to  cultivate  duly 
his  land— his  pretended  property.  He  is,  therefore,  not  even 
master  of  his  own  limbs  and  actions,  but  essentially  a  slave. 


108  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

There  is  nothing  necessarily  mischievous  in  the 
theory  of  the  Eastern  forms  of  land  occupation. 
On  the  contrary,  it  approximates  to  that  which  we 
consider  the  most  natural,  equitable,  and  beneficial 
arrangement,  namely,  the  securing  a  permanent 
property  in  the  land  to  him  who  renders  it  produc- 
tive, and  to  his  heirs,  subject  only  to  a  payment  to 
the  state  proportioned  to  the  value  of  the  produce, 
for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  expenses  neces- 
sary for  the  protection  of  this  and  other  property. 
The  misery  suffered  by  the  land-cultivators  in  Asia 
and  the  wretched  state  of  their  agriculture  are  a 
consequence  not  of  the  original  rule  of  the  coun- 
try, but  of  its  continual  infraction.  It  is  their  ex. 
posure  to  the  desolating  violence  of  almost  perpet- 
ual warfare,  the  insatiate  tyranny  of  despotic  pow- 
er, and  the  extortionate  rapacity  of  its  minions, 
that  has  dried  up  the  naturally  abundant  sources 
of  production  throughout  Asia,  repressed  industry, 
and  prevented  the  acquisition  of  skill  or  capital. 
Had  there  existed  in  India  any  defined  legal  rights, 
any  power  beyond  the  mere  caprice  of  an  individ- 
ual, by  which  the  demands  of  the  state  upon  the 
cultivators  could  have  been  so  far  restrained  as  to 
leave  the  latter  the  power  of  bettering  their  condi- 
tion by  their  industry,  the  vast  quantity  of  waste 
but  exuberantly  fertile  land  in  that  country,  and 
the  luxuriance  of  its  climate,  would  have  admitted 
of  an  increase  of  production  which  must  have 
raised  the  prosperity  of  the  natives  and  the  re- 
sources  of  the  government  to  an  almost  incalcula- 
ble extent.  The  regulations  which,  with  the  most 
humane  intentions,  have  been  lately  enforced  for 
securing  to  the  ryots  the  legal  ownership  of  their 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  109 

land,  and  permanently  fixing  the  proportion  of 
their  contribution  to  the  state,  are  likely,  in  no  long 
time,  to  change  the  entire  face  of  the  country,  and 
benefit  all  parties  in  an  extraordinary  degree.* 

The  remarks  we  have  been  led  to  make  at  some 
length  on  the  systems  of  land  occupation  in  the 
East,  will  enable  us  to  understand  the  more  easily 
the  origin  and  real  character  of  those  Which  pre- 
vail in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

II.  In  Europe  the  power  of  the  sovereign  never 
became  absolute  as  in  Asia.  His  principal  vassals 
were  always  more  or  less  independent  of  him. 
Each  had  his  own  clan  or  body  of  vassals,  who 
looked  up  to  him  as  their  only  head,  and  were 
ready  to  obey  his  orders  at  any  time,  whether  to 
act  for  or  against  his  suzerain.  And  a  league  of 
these  chieftains  could  often  overawe,  and  occa- 
sionally succeeded  in  dethroning  their  sovereign. 
Much  of  the  history  of  Europe,  in  -fact,  is  but 
the  narrative  of  continued  struggles  between  sov- 
ereigns and  some  of  their  vassal  nobles,  in  which 
now  one,  now  another  party  obtained  the  mastery. 
Under  the  immediate  successors  of  Clovis,  the 
Frank  conqueror  of  Gaul,  the  royal  authority  was 
uppermost.  But  the  nobles  soon  contrived  to  re- 
gain the  power  which  their  negligence  alone  had 
allowed  the  sovereign  to  usurp,  and  which  that  of 
the  feeble  kings  of  the  line  of  Clovis  enabled  them 
easily  to  resume.  The  chief  vassals  of  the  crown 

*  Mr.  Jones's  work  "On  the  Distribution  of  Wealth"  con- 
tains in  its  Appendix  some  valuable  information  from  Col.  Tod's 
Rajast'han  and  other  sources,  upon  the  interesting  topic  of  the 
land-tenure  of  our  Indian  possessions. 

K 


110  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

succeeded  in  obtaining  a  full  recognition  of  their 
hereditary  right  to  their  patrimonial  possessions,  to 
which  the  royal  investiture  gave  more  of  orna- 
ment than  sanction.  "  From  the  death  of  Charle- 
magne the  kingdom  of  France  was  a  bundle  of 
fiefs,  and  the  king  little  more  than  one  of  a  num- 
ber of  feudal  nobles,  differing  rather  in  dignity 
than  in  power  from  the  rest."* 

The  independence  of  the  German  aristocracy 
reached  its  height  towards  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.  Since  that  period  the  sovereigns 
found  it  necessary  to  strengthen  themselves  against 
their  nobles  by  calling  in  the  aid  of  their  people, 
and  particularly  of  the  commercial  and  manufac- 
turing towns,  which,  with  this  view,  they  fostered 
by  immunities,  privileges,  and  protection  from  the 
extortions  of  the  neighbouring  counts  and  barons. 
From  these  elements  sprung  the  political  condi- 
tion of  the  European  states,  which  unquestionably 
owe  the  freedom  they  enjoy  to  the  necessity  which 
drove  the  sovereign  to  conciliate  the  mass  of  the 
people  as  a  counterpoise  to  a  powerful  aristocracy. 

The  land,  meantime,  was  cultivated  almost  whol- 
ly by  hereditary  slaves,  who  were  bred  and  treated 
in  all  respects  like  cattle.  Their  numbers  were 
also  recruited  by  the  prisoners  taken  in  war,  and 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  most  turbulent  times,  by 
freemen,  who  were  actually  driven  to  enrol  them- 
selves among  the  slaves  of  powerful  chieftains  in 
order  to  preserve  their  lives  ;  a  petty  freeman  be- 
ing a  common  prey  to  all  parties,  whereas  the 
slaves  of  a  chief  were  of  course  protected  by  him 
from  all  others.  There  were  some  distinctions 
*  Hallam,  i.,  p.  244. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  Ill 

among  slaves — not,  however,  of  much  importance. 
Some  were  certainly  saleable  like  cattle,  and  might 
be  severed  from  the  land  ;  others  were,  by  cus- 
tom, or  perhaps  in  virtue  of  the  original  bargain 
under  which  they  or  their  ancestors  had  submit- 
ted themselves  as  slaves  to  the  chief,  attached  to 
the  soil  (adscripti  gleba),  and  could  only  be  al- 
ienated with  it.  They  derived  their  subsistence 
by  cultivating  for  their  own  use  small  tracts  of 
land  allotted  to  them  by  the  lord  for  this  purpose 
(a  cheap  contrivance  for  making  them  maintain 
themselves),  and  for  the  remainder  of  their  time 
they  laboured  on  the  demesne  land,  or  portion  re- 
served  for  the  lord's  own  use,  the  produce  of  which 
formed  his  revenue.  Even  the  kings  of  France 
and  Lombardy  supplied  the  expenses  of  their  rude 
courts  from  their  demesne  lands.  Charlemagne 
himself  was  a  farmer,  and  regulated  the  economy 
of  his  farms  with  the  minuteness  of  a  steward.* 

Nearly  the  whole  of  Europe  was  at  one  time 
cultivated  in  this  manner  by  slaves,  or,  as  they  are 
generally  called,  serfs.  But  the  labouring  classes 
of  the  Western  states  have,  by  slow  degrees,  con- 
trived to  emancipate  themselves  from  personal  bon- 
dage, and  to  obtain  the  invaluable  natural  right  of 
either  working  on  their  own  account,  or  of  disposing 
of  their  services  to  the  highest  bidder.  Among 
several  of  the  Northern  and  Eastern  nations  serf- 
ship  still  prevails  ;f  in  some,  as  Russia,  for  exam- 
ple, in  its  unmitigated  form  ;  the  owner  having  al- 
most unlimited  power  over  the  persons  of  his  serfs  ; 

*  Hallam,  chap,  ii.,  part  ii. 

t  In  most  of  Russia,  in  Poland,  Bohemia,  Hungary,  and  parts 
of  Austria. — Ed. 


112  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

beating,  mutilating,  and  even  putting  them  to  death 
at  his  will. 

The  disadvantages  of  a  system  of  serfship  or 
villeinage  are  obvious,  and  are  attested  by  the  low 
state  of  civilization,  the  poverty,  and  the  imperfect 
cultivation  of  the  countries  in  which  it  prevails. 
The  labour  compulsorily  exacted  from  tenants  on 
the  grounds  or  on  behoof  of  their  landlords,  is 
sure  to  be  performed  in  a  very  slovenly  manner. 
Men  do  not  exert  themselves  with  spirit  or  effect 
unless  they  are  working  on  their  own  account, 
and  are  allowed  to  reap  the  advantages  of  their 
superior  industry.  It  has  been  proved  that  one 
Middlesex  mower  will  cut  as  much  grass  in  a  day 
as  three  Russian  serfs.  And  the  necesary  ab- 
sence under  such  a  system  of  all  improved  imple- 
ments or  processes  of  husbandry,  augments  the 
comparative  inefficiency  of  serf-labour.  Indolence 
and  carelessness  are  the  habitual  characteristics 
of  a  peasantry  in  this  condition ;  their  want  of 
skill,  means,  and  energy  must  have  a  disastrous  in-  - 
fluence  on  the  annual  produce  of  the  land  and  la- 
bour  of  their  territory,  and  must  tend  to  keep  the 
country  they  inhabit  in  a  state  of  poverty  and  po- 
litical feebleness,  from  which  it  will  be  impossible 
for  it  to  emerge  while  so  deleterious  a  system  is 
suffered  to  prevail.  These  disadvantages  are,  in 
fact,  very  generally  recognised  by  all  the  enlight- 
ened classes  in  serf  countries,  and  they  have  given 
rise  to  the  numerous  attempts  now  going  on  to 
substitute  payments  of  produce  or  money  in  lieu 
of  labour  as  the  rent  of  land.  The  great  end  in 
view  is,  of  course,  to  encourage  the  industry  of  the 
cultivator,  by  placing  him  in  a  position  to  improve 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  113 

his  own  circumstances,  as  well  as  those  of  his  land- 
lord,  by  increased  skill  and  exertion.  For  the  de- 
tails of  these  efforts  and  their  varied  success,  we 
must  refer  to  the  valuable  work  of  Mr.  Jones.* 

III.  The  system  of  serf-cultivation,  though  for- 
merly  common  through  a  very  large  extent  of  Eu- 
rope, was  not  universal.  In  some  countries,  from 
a  very  early  period,  the  landowners  have  accepted 
from  the  cultivators  of  their  estates  a  share  of  the 
produce  as  rent.  The  existence  of  such  a  state 
of  things  indicates  a  more  advanced  condition  of 
society  than  that  which  accompanies  the  serf  sys- 
tem. The  serf,  in  fact,  is  a  mere  slave,  compelled 
to  till  his  master's  land,  and  cheaply  maintained  by 
the  permission  to  cultivate  for  himself  a  patch  of 
soil  barely  enough  to  provide  him  with  subsistence. 
The  metayer  (as  he  is  termed  in  Italy),  on  the  con- 
trary, is,  in  all  respects,  a  voluntary  tenant,  who 
enters  into  a  sort  of  joint-stock  partnership  with 
his  landlord  ;  the  latter  finding  the  land,  and  the 
seed,  tools,  and  stock  necessary  for  its  cultivation ; 
the  former  the  equally  necessary  labour.  The 
produce  is  divided  between  them,  generally  in 
equal  shares,  from  which  division  the  name  (me- 
tayer, medietarius)  is  derived.  This  form  of  hold- 
ing is  to  be  traced  very  clearly  to  Greece,  whence 
it  was  introduced  among  the  Romans,  and  has  per- 
petuated itself,  in  some  degree,  in  most  of  the  coun- 
tries which  were  formerly  provinces  of  that  em- 
pire ;  though  partly  superseded  by  that  of  serfship 
and  villeinage,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  grew  up 

*  Jones  on  Rent,  1831. 
K2 


114  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

under  the  feudal  system.  In  Italy,  Savoy,  and 
Spain,  metayer  tenancy  is  common  ;  and  in  France, 
before  the  revolution,  four  sevenths  of  the  whole 
surface  was  occupied  en  metairie.  Even  now,  in 
spite  of  the  multiplication  of  small  proprietors  con- 
sequent on  the  revolution,  this  class  of  tenants  are 
supposed  to  cultivate  one  half  of  France,  and  the 
greater  part  of  Italy  and  Spain. 

Though  the  metayer  has  many  apparent  advan- 
tages over  the  serf,  in  his  personal  freedom,  and  in 
the  power  he  enjoys  of  cultivating  his  farm  as  he 
pleases,  freed  from  the  tyranny  and  irksome  super- 
intendence of  the  proprietor,  yet  he  is  found,  in 
practice,  to  be  very  little,  if  at  all,  more  advan- 
tageously situated.  It  would  seem,  at  first  sight, 
that  the  reward  of  his  toil,  consisting  in  a  definite 
share  of  the  produce,  would  increase  with  his  in- 
dustry and  skill,  and  therefore  stimulate  him  to  ex- 
ertion. But  the  shortsighted  covetousness  of  the 
proprietors  has  almost  everywhere  prevented  this, 
by  inducing  them,  when  they  could  not  by  agree- 
ment directly  increase  their  share,  to  do  so  indi- 
rectly, by  throwing  the  government  taxes  on  the 
tenant,  and  by  claiming  for  themselves  an  exemp- 
tion from  all  imposts.  By  this  and  other  similar 
contrivances,  the  share  of  the  vmetayer  has  been 
generally  so  reduced  as  to  leave  him  but  a  bare 
subsistence,  and  no  hope  of  bettering  his  condition 
by  any  exertion  of  industry.  The  metayers  of 
France  are  described  by  Turgot  before  the  revolu- 
tion, and  by  other  writers  of  the  present  day,  as 
•existing  in  the  depth  of  misery,  always  in  arrear 
to  their  landlord,  and  consequently  entirely  at  his 
znercy,  from  their  utter  inability  even  to  live  upon 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  115 

their  half  of  the  produce  of  their  farms.  This 
misery,  of  course,  reacts  injuriously  upon  their 
landlords'  interests,  by  giving  a  careless,  slovenly 
character  to  their  mode  of  cultivation,  and  putting 
anything  like  energy  or  a  spirit  of  improvement 
out  of  the  question. 

Again,  the  divided  interest  which  exists  in  the 
produce  is  a  bar  to  improvement.  The  tenant  is 
unwilling  to  listen  to  the  suggestions  of  his  land- 
lord ;  the  landlord  to  intrust  additional  means  to 
an  ignorant,  prejudiced,  and  careless  tenant.  When 
stock  is  to  be  advanced  by  one  person  and  used  by 
another,  some  waste  and  neglect  in  the  receiving 
party,  great  jealousy  and  reluctance  in  the  contrib- 
uting party,  naturally  .  ensue.  Hence  the  imple- 
ments and  stocks  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  me- 
tayers are,  in  general,  very  scanty,  and  of  an  in- 
different quality  ;  and  their  land,  on  the  whole,  is 
very  imperfectly  cultivated.  These  disadvantages 
must  continue  severely  to  affect  the  condition  of 
countries  in  which  this  imperfect  system  of  land- 
occupation  prevails.  Their  agriculture  must  be 
exceedingly  unproductive,  as  compared  with  the 
capacity  of  the  soil  and  the  amount  of  labour  ex- 
isting  upon  it ;  and  since  the  produce  of  land  forms, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  substratum  of  all  other  wealth, 
the  production  of  the  aggregate  stock  of  the  means 
of  enjoyment  must  be  proportionately  slow,  lan- 
guid, and  contracted. 

IV.  Such,  with  very  trifling  variations,  are  the 
imperfect  systems  on  which  land  has  been  occu- 
pied for  the  purpose  of  cultivation  throughout  the 
entire  continent  of  Asia  and  nearly  the  whole  of 


116  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

Europe.  In  Great  Britain,  Holland,  and  the  Neth- 
erlands, a  different  mode  has  been  adopted,  to  which, 
in  a  great  measure,  is  to  be  ascribed  the  extraordi- 
nary comparative  progress  which  agriculture  has 
made  in  this  corner  of  Europe. 

At  a  very  early  period,  as  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, the  stipulated  services  of  the  villeins  or  ma- 
norial tenants  in  England  began  to  be  commuted  for 
annual  payments  in  money.  About  the  same  time, 
it  became  not  uncommon  for  the  lord  to  lease  out 
for  the  duration  of  certain  lives,  or  for  a  term  of 
years,  upon  payment  of  a  money  fine,  portions  of 
the  manorial  waste  to  such  persons  as  were  desi- 
rous and  able  to  reduce  it  to  tillage.  As  these 
leases  expired,  the  lands,  whose  value  had  increased 
through  the  cultivation  bestowed  on  them,  were 
relet  for  an  augmented  fine,  or  at  an  annual  money- 
rent  ;  frequently  for  both.  And  the  lord  in  time 
found  it  much  more  convenient  to  lease  out  in  this 
manner  his  demesne  lands  likewise,  than  to  farm 
them  himself  through  a  bailiff.  In  this  manner,  the 
greater  portion  of  the  land  of  England  came  to  be 
occupied  by  tenants  on  lease.  Many  small  plots 
were  still  cultivated  by  their  owners,  the  liberi  ten- 
entes,  or  freeholders,  who  had  acquired  them  by 
purchase,  or  by  descent  from  the  freemen  and 
military  tenants  of  the  feudal  era.  Other  estates 
still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  descendants  or 
purchasers  from  the  ancient  villeins,  holding,  as  it 
was  called,  at  the  will  of  the  lord  by  copy  of  court 
roll  (the  record  of  such  grants).  To  the  latter 
tenure,  custom,  and  the  indulgence  of  the  lords  of 
manors  in  never  resuming  the  grant,  in  process  of 
time,  gave  a  prescriptive  right,  recognised  by  the 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  117 

courts  as  a  valid  claim  according  to  the  common 
(or  customary)  law  of  the  land.  But  even  of  these 
smaller  properties,  many,  when  they  fell  into  the 
hands  of  minors  or  women,  or  were  purchased  by 
persons  engaged  in  trade  or  otherwise,  were  in 
their  turn  leased  out  to  tenants  willing  to  pay  their 
owners  a  money-rent  for  their  occupation.  So 
that,  by  degrees,  nearly  the  whole  surface  of  Eng- 
land, as  well  the  small  estates  of  the  inferior  class 
of  land-owners  as  the  extensive  domains  of  the 
lords  of  manors,  the  nobles,  the  crown,  or  the 
church,  came  to  be  cultivated  in  portions  of  mod. 
erate  extent,  by  tenants  who  undertook  to  farm 
these  portions  on  leases  for  certain  protracted  pe- 
riods, stipulating  for  payment  to  the  owner  of  an 
annual  rent. 

Now  it  is  immediately  evident  that  such  a  sys- 
tem of  occupation  must  afford  much  scope  for  the 
development  of  industry  and  economy.  A  culti- 
vator, secured  by  a  lease  in  the  possession  of  all 
that  he  can  raise  off  his  farm  over  and  above  the 
rent  he  has  stipulated  to  pay  its  owner,  in  many 
respects  stands  for  the  term  of  his  occupation  in 
the  position  of  its  owner.  Though  not  induced  to  the 
same  prospective  calculations  and  investments  as 
if  he  were  proprietor,  nor  having  the  same  motive 
to  economy  and  self-dependance,  his  interest  will 
still  prompt  him  to  steady  and  systematic  effort. 
It  is  to  the  assiduous  industry  of  these  leasehold 
tenants,  and  the  smaller  occupying  freeholders, 
that  England  is  indebted  for  the  great  advances 
she  has  made  in  agricultural  skill,  and  for  the  fer- 
tilization of  almost  every  corner  of  her  surface 
where  the  plough  can  enter.  To  their  steady 


118  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

economy  she  owes  the  accumulated  mass  of  agri- 
cultural capital  which  renders  the  labour  of  Brit- 
ish farmers  so  greatly  more  effective  than  that  of 
continental  cultivators. 

The  advantages  inherent  in  the  leasehold  system 
of  occupation  would,  however,  have  been  ineffec- 
tual but  for  the  protection  which  the  law  extended 
to  the  tenants  from  the  rapacity  of  their  landlords, 
and  the  countenance  which  the  courts  of  Britain 
have,  wi-th  very  rare  exceptions,  at  all  times  liber- 
ally  afforded  to  the  efforts  of  the  industrious  classes 
of  society  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  thral- 
dom in  which  they  had  been  bound  by  the  feudal 
system.  Perhaps  it  is  to  the  spirit  of  independence 
and  love  of  liberty  uniformly  inspired  by  commercial 
pursuits,  that  we  are  to  attribute  the  success  which 
at  so  early  a  period  attended  the  efforts  of  the 
English,  the  Dutch,  and  some  other  maritime  states, 
to  free  themselves  from  the  shackles  of  feudalism. 
Serfship  was  almost  wholly  extinguished  in  England 
in  the  time  of.  Elizabeth.  While  the  cultivators 
of  nearly  all  Europe  were  abject  slaves,  subjected 
to  the  whip,  knot,  or  gallows  of  their  feudal  lords, 
the  merry  and  stalwart  yeomen  of  England  had 
rights  recognised  by  law,  which  they  well  knew, 
and,  "  knowing,  dared  maintain."  They  tilled  the 
fields  of  proud  and  wealthy  barons,  not  on  such 
terms  as  a  master  imposes  on  his  slave,  but  on 
those  of  free  contract  for  mutual  benefit,  such  as 
left  the  lord  as  much  indebted  to  his  tenant  as  the 
tenant  to  his  lord.  In  gaining  this  high  compara- 
tive condition,  the  cultivators  of  England  were  as- 
sisted  by  the  sovereign,  who  felt  the  advantage  of 
being  backed  by  their  honest  and  hearty  loyalty  in 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  119 

his  disputes  with  disloyal  nohles ;  and  also  by  the 
judges  of  the  law-courts  appointed  by  him,  them- 
selves sprung  from  the  people,  and  naturally  in- 
clined to  favour  the  liberty  of  the  subject.  Black- 
stone  truly  says  that  "  the  law  of  England  has  al- 
ways been  ready  to  catch  at  anything  in  favour  of 
liberty." 

One  other  remarkable  circumstance  contributed 
to  favour  the  advance  of  the  class  of  English 
farmers  in  wealth  and  independence,  namely,  the 
continued  fall  in  the  value  of  money  during  the 
three  successive  centuries  which  followed  the  dis- 
covery of  America.  The  abundance  of  gold  and 
silver  flowing  from  the  New  World  into  the  Old 
lowered  their  value,  and  with  them  that  of  money. 
The  sovereigns,  during  the  same  period,  frequently 
resorted  to  the  trick  of  debasing  the  coin  of  the 
realm,  in  order  to  pay  their  old  debts  in  money  of 
less  intrinsic  worth.  And  the  consequence  was, 
that  leasehold  tenants,  who  had  contracted  at  the 
beginning  of  a  long  term  of  occupation  for  pay- 
ment of  a  fixed  annual  rent,  proportioned  in 
amount  to  the  value  of  money  at  that  time,  profited 
greatly  as  its  value  was  subsequently  lessened,  and 
the  money- price  of  every  product  of  their  farms 
proportionately  increased.  The  landowners  were, 
of  course,  losers  in  the  same  proportion ;  but  the 
nation  at  large  benefited  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree. For,  had  this  difference  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  landlords,  to  whom  in  equity,  perhaps, 
it  was  due,  it  would  have  been  spent  by  them  as 
revenue  on  more  sumptuous  clothing,  furniture,  and 
feasting,  and  on  larger  trains  of  menials ;  whereas, 
in  the  hands  of  their  tenants  it  was  economized, 


120  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

and  accumulated  into  capital,  being  expended  by 
them  in  the  more  vigorous  cultivation  of  their 
farms,  in  bringing  fresh  lands  under  culture,  in  the 
erection  of  farm  buildings  and  in  other  permanent 
improvements,  by  which  the  general  productive- 
ness of  the  national  soil  was  increased. 

V.  In  the  northern  division  of  the  New  World 
we  may  see  a  system  in  practice  very  different 
from  any  of  those  we  have  been  employed  in  con. 
templating ;  a  system  approaching,  perhaps,  as 
nearly  as  is  desirable  to  the  natural  and  equitable 
law  of  land. proprietorship.  These  vast  territo- 
ries, throughout  which  man,  up  to  a  very  late  pe- 
riod, was  a  comparative  stranger,  offered  an  almost 
boundless  extent  of  surface  for  his  occupation. 
The  adventurers  that  migrated  from  the  Old 
World  to  settle  on  these  fair  shores,  bringing  with 
them  both  a  knowledge  of  the  arts  of  civilized 
life,  and  the  habits  and  maxims  of  regulated  free- 
dom, found  on  their  arrival  no  powerful  monopo- 
lists, claiming,  on  the  plea  of  ancient  grants  or 
modern  conquest,  to  exclude  them  from  their  just 
place  at  the  bosom  of  mother  earth  ;  no  arbitrary 
despot  proclaiming  himself,  by  right  divine,  lord  of 
earth  and  all  that  is  therein  ;  they  had 

"  The  world  before  them  where  to  choose, 
And  Providence  their  guide." 

Each  took  possession  of  as  much  land  as  he  found 
it  convenient  to  cultivate,  and  rejoiced  to  find  oth- 
ers fixing  their  choice  in  his  immediate  vicinity, 
and  sharing  with  him  the  well-known  advantages 
of  a  division  and  exchange  of  labour.  As  the  set- 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  121 

tlements  advanced,  and  it  was  found  to  be  for  the 
common  interest  that  the  occupation  of  fresh  land 
should  be  regulated  in  a  systematic  manner,  for 
the  sake  of  more  effectually  securing  proper  com- 
munications and  measures  for  internal  security  and 
external  defence,  the  state  was  appointed  proprie- 
tor of  all  the  unoccupied  lands,  but  only  with  the 
view  of  their  being  dealt  out  to  all  who  might  wish 
to  settle,  upon  such  terms  and  in  so  regulated  a 
manner  as  would  ultimately  be  most  conducive  to 
the  benefit  of  the  settlers  themselves. 

Here  was  a  practical  adoption,  through  an  ex- 
tensive  tract  of  country,  of  those  simple  and  natu- 
ral principles  which  we  have  shown  ought  every- 
where to  regulate  the  appropriation  of  land,  the 
common  bounty  of  the  Creator.  We  see  its  re- 
sults in  the  extraordinarily  rapid  increase  of  wealth 
and  population  among  the  settlers  wherever  they 
enjoy  internal  tranquillity  and  the  protection  of  wise 
and  equal  laws,  as  in  the  United  States.  In  the 
provinces  formerly  colonized  by  Spain  and  Portu- 
gal, civil  dissension,  combined  with  the  prevailing 
want  of  intelligence  and  moral:  culture,  has  unhap- 
pily marred  the  lot  of  their  inhabitants  ;  while  in 
the  British  Provinces,  the  colonial  policy  of  the 
mother  country  has  produced,  though  in  a  much 
less  degree,  the  same  melancholy  effect. 

Political  economists  are  in  the  habit  of  explain- 
ing the  high  wages  and  prosperous  condition  of 
the  cultivators  of  the  United  States  by  the  single 
circumstance  of  these  newly-settled  countries  pos- 
sessing vast  tracts  of  uncultivated  land,  from  which 
it  is  easy  for  any  industrious  man,  by  the  labour  of 
his  own  arm,  to  procure  a  comfortable  subsistence 
L 


122  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

for  himself  and  his  family.  But  the  fact  is,  that 
many  of  the  most  ancient  states  of  the  Old  World, 
as  well  as  all  parts  of  the  New,  contain  an  almost 
equal  abundance  of  untilled  lands,  of  high  natural 
fertility,  and  provided  by  nature  with  every  requi- 
site quality  for  the  occupation  and  enjoyment  of  man, 
upon  the  sole  condition  that  he  exert  the  powers 
with  which  she  has  furnished  him  in  the  develop- 
ment of  their  productiveness.  It  is  to  the  vices  of 
the  governments  and  institutions  of  these  countries, 
not  to  the  deficiency  or  exhaustion  of  its  rich,  and, 
through  a  vast  extent,  yet  virgin  soils,  that  we  must 
attribute  whatever  is  to  be  found  of  misery  in  the 
condition  of  their  people.  It  is  by  the  strong  re- 
maining taint  of  feudal  slavery,  the  weight  of  de- 
spotic tyranny,  the  unnatural  restraints  imposed  on 
industry  by  invidious  legislation,  and  the  ignorance, 
vice,  and  bigotry  which  a  long  course  of  systemat- 
ic oppression  has  engendered  in  both  people  and 
rulers,  that  the  development  of  their  natural  re- 
sources is  impeded.  There  can  be  no  stronger 
proof  of  this  assertion  than  the  comparatively  un- 
improved condition  in  which  the  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese colonies  have  stagnated,  though  planted 
for  centuries  on  new  and  highly  fertile  soils  ;  while 
the  Northern  states  of  America  have  made,  in  a 
third  part  of  the  time,  such  rapid  progress  as  to 
present  already  to  the  delighted  friend  of  humanity 
one  of  the  most  powerful,  wealthy,  prosperous,  and 
civilized  nations  of  the  globe.  The  difference  can 
be  attributed  to  nothing  but  the  different  political 
institutions  and  moral  training  prevailing  in  those 
countries. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  123 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CAPITAL. 

The  Result  of  previous  Labour — Not  affixed  to  Land — Nor  in- 
corporated with  Human  Ability — Nor  reserved  for  private 
Consumption— But  employed,  or  reserved  for  Employment, 
in  Production,  with  a  View  to  Profit  from  sale  of  its  Produce. 
— Necessity  of  so  restricting  the  Meaning  of  the  Term. — 
Utility  of  Capital.— Profit  on  Capital.— Nature  of  Profit,  and 
Natural  Right  to  its  Enjoyment. — Mistaken  Views  of  those 
who  declaim  against  the  Profits  of  Capital. — Fixed  and  Cir- 
culating Capitals.— Elements  of  Profit. — Net  Profit,  or  Inter- 
est of  Money. — Inequality  of  Gross  Profits. — Equality  of  Net 
Profit  in  the  same  Country. 

LABOUR,  as  we  have  seen,  without  the  assistance 
of  the  powers  of  nature  as  developed  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth,  can  do  nothing.  But  neither 
can  labour  do  much,  even  with  the  possession  of 
land,  and  the  aid  of  all  the  powers  of  nature,  in 
the  absence  of  much  previous  preparation,  the  re- 
sult of  preceding  labour  ;  and  especially  of  a  stock 
of  tools  to  work  with,  of  materials  to  work  upon, 
and  of  food,  clothing,  and  other  necessaries  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  labourer  while  at  work.  A 
few  berries  from  the  bush,  water  from  the  spring, 
and  now  and  then  a  stray  animal,  taken  by  supe- 
rior swiftness  of  foot,  must  compose  the  sole  sub- 
sistence of  the  man  who  has  within  reach  no  pre- 
pared reserve,  either  of  food,  or  of  instruments  for 
obtaining  it.  The  poorest  savage  generally  pos- 
sesses some  stores  of  this  nature,  the  products  of 
previous  labour,  nor  always  depends  for  his  daily 


124  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

meal  upon  the  chance  of  obtaining  it  by  his  daily 
exertion.  But,  in  an  advanced  state  of  society, 
few  things  can  be  produced  and  prepared  for  con- 
sumption except  by  processes  which  require  mueh 
time — days,  months,  often  years — during  which  the 
labourers  employed  must  be  supplied  with  food, 
clothing,  and  other  necessaries  of  subsistence.  A 
variety  of  tools,  instruments,  and  machinery  are 
equally  necessary,  as  well  as  a  stock  of  materials  ; 
all  of  which  things  have  to  be  provided  at  an  ex- 
pense  of  much  time  and  labour,  before  any  of  the 
ordinary  operations  of  industry  can  commence. 
Stocks  of  all  these  things,  it  is  evident,  must  be 
accumulated  somewhere  at  hand,  for  the  use  of  the 
various  classes  of  labourers,  or  production  of  no 
kind  could  be  carried  on.  The  agricultural  la- 
bourer could  neither  turn  the  soil,  nor  deposite  a 
grain  in  it,  if  he  were  unprovided  with  the  spade, 
plough,  harrow,  and  other  implements  of  husband. 
ry.  The  smith  and  the  carpenter  must  cease  to 
work  unless  they  can  find  somewhere  a  stock  of 
iron  and  timber  prepared  to  their  hands,  as  well  as 
the  fuel,  forge,  and  workshop,  with  the  tools  and 
instruments  peculiar  to  their  trades.  And  these, 
and  all  other  classes  of  labourers,  depend  likewise 
for  their  daily  sustenance  and  comforts  on  the  due 
provision  of  food,  clothes,  furniture,  and  houses, 
either  in  their  own  possession  or  within  their  reach. 
The  results  of  previous  labour,  accumulated  in 
any  country,  constitute,  with  land,  its  stock  of  wealth 
or  of  the  materials  for  producing  wealth.  But 
of  these  results  a  very  considerable  portion  is  so 
far  incorporated  with,  or  affixed  to  the  soil,  as  to 
be  by  law,  custom,  or  necessity,  inseparable  from 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  125 

it.  Such  are  the  permanent  improvements  which 
have  been  made  upon  the  land  at  various  times 
since  its  first  occupation,  with  the  view  of  aug- 
menting its  productiveness ;  such  as  fences,  dura- 
ble  manures,  roads,  canals  for  irrigation  or  traffic, 
plantations  of  fruit  or  forest  trees,  and  buildings  of 
various  kinds  ;  all  of  which  are  ranked  by  law  and 
custom,  together  with  the  land  to  which  they  are 
affixed,  in  the  general  class  of  "  immoveables,"  or 
landed  property  ;  and  the  returns  derived  from 
them  are  merged  in  rent.  Nor  can  Political  Econ- 
omy, when  taking  a  general  view  of  the  sources  of 
wealth,  without  inextricable  confusion,  depart  in 
this  generic  nomenclature  from  the  established 
usage. 

Another  portion  of  the  accumulated  results  of 
labour  resides  in  the  acquired  skill  and  knowledge 
of  individuals,  in  the  acquisition  of  which  much 
time  and  trouble  has  been  expended.  The  entire 
body  of  the  useful  arts  and  sciences  forms  a  part, 
and  the  most  valuable  part,  of  the  stock  of  society. 
It  is  the  accumulated  result  of  intense  preceding 
labour  on  the  part  of  the  great  benefactors  of  man- 
kind, for  ages  back,  preserved  to  us  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  and  with  continual  improve, 
ments,  by  tradition  or  writing.  These  treasures 
of  knowledge,  however,  before  they  can  be  pro- 
ductively applied,  must  be  appropriated  by  individ- 
uals with  additional  labour  on  their  part,  and  so 
far  mixed  up  with  their  natural  qualifications  as  to 
become  personal  to  them.  This  kind  of  stock, 
therefore,  enters  into  the  category  of  ability  or  hu- 
man powers  of  production,  under  which  head  we 
L  2 


126  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

have  already  considered  it.  Its  returns  properly 
fall  under  the  appellation  of  wages. 

The  third  and  remaining  portion  of  the  aggre- 
gate stock  of  a  community  consists  of  the  material 
products  of  previous  labour,  that  are  separable 
from  the  soil  as  well  as  from  individuals ;  and  it 
is  therefore  properly  designated  as  "  moveables"  or 
moveable  stock. 

Moveable  stock  is  itself  to  be  distinguished  into 
two  great  divisions,  according  as  it  is  kept  or  used 
for  the  purpose  of  producing  wealth,  or  simply  for 
individual  gratification  without  any  ulterior  object. 

Thejirst  division  comprehends  the  various  tools, 
machinery,  materials,  necessaries  of  subsistence, 
or  other  things  provided  for  sale,  or  for  the  con. 
sumption  and  use  of  labourers  while  employed  in 
the  production  of  saleable  commodities  ;  and  is 
properly  designated,  as  we  have  already  explained, 
by  the  term  capital.  The  remaining  portion  of 
moveable  stock,  which  is  not  kept  for  sale,  or  con. 
surned  with  the  view  of  facilitating  farther  produc- 
tion, but  only  for  that  which  is,  in  truth,  the  real 
end  and  object  of  all  production — the  gratification  of 
its  owner — is  indifferently  called  revenue,  wealth, 
property,  goods  and  chattels,  &c.  ;  but  must  not 
be  confounded  with  capital. 

Though  it  may  be  difficult  in  all  cases  to  deter, 
mine  of  every  particular  object,  whether  it  is  pro- 
ductively  engaged,  and,  therefore,  to  be  reckoned 
capital  or  not,  yet  this  need  no  more  prevent  our 
distinguishing  the  whole  moveable  stock  of  a  coun- 
try under  two  great  heads,  according  as  it  is  em- 
ployed with  a  view  to  the  reproduction  of  more 
wealth,  or  only  with  a  view  to  immediate  gratifica- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  127 

tion,  than  we  need  be  interdicted  from  classifying 
natural  objects  into  minerals,  vegetables,  and  ani- 
mals, because  there  are  some  few  intermediate 
species  which  can  be  with  difficulty  referred  to  ei- 
ther class.  No  useful  conclusions  can  possibly  be 
come  to  upon  what  is  going  forward  in  society, 
if  we  do  not  distinguish  between  those  masses  of 
wealth  which  are  habitually  consumed  in  a  pro- 
ductive  manner  —  in  such  a  way,  that  is,  as  to  pro- 
dcce  an  equal  or  greater  quantity  of  wealth  —  from 
those  which  are  consumed  unproductively,  or  so  as 
to  leave  no  equivalent  behind.  When  an  individ- 
ual consumes  a  certain  quantity  of  his  stock  with 
no  other  aim  or  result  than  the  gatification  of 
himself  or  his  friends,  the  mass  of  wealth  is  pro 
tanto  diminished  ;  and,  though  gratification  is  the 
ultimate  end  of  all  production,  yet,  since  a  portion 
of  the  means  of  gratification  is  destroyed,  and  no 
similar  portion  produced,  such  consumption  is  ev- 
idently unproductive.*  What  is  consumed  in  this 
way  is  usually  said  to  be  expended  as  revenue. 
When  an  individual,  on  the  other  hand,  purposely 

*  In  whatever  degree  the  desire  of  such  gratification  stimu- 
lates the  labourer  to  increased  efforts  that  he  may  have  the 
means  of  procuring  it,  in  the  same  degree  does  it  conduce  to 
production,  and  hence  such  consumption  ought  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  wholly  unproductive,  unless  it  tends  to  disable  the  la- 
bourer from  future  efforts.  For  instance,  the  desire  of  using 

and 


sugar  as  a  luxury  may  incite  the  labourer  to  more  sirenuous  an 
to  better-directed  efforts,  and  may  thus  render  him  a  better  pro- 
ducer. Such,  generally,  is  the  tendency  of  innocent  gratifica- 
tions, more  especially  those  of  an  intellectual  and  moral  char- 
acter. On  the  other  hand,  such  a  taste  as  that  for  spirituous  li- 
quors, though  it  may  prompt  to  occasional  efforts  in  order  to  get 
means  of  indulgence,  has  a  direct  tendency  to  lessen  in  the  la- 
bourer both  the  ability  and  the  disposition  for  steady  employ- 
ment. —  Ed. 


128  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

expends  stock  in  such  a  way  as  that  its  consump- 
tion is  the  means  of  producing  an  equal  or  greater 
quantity — as,  for  example,  the  consumption  of  seed 
and  husbandry  implements  by  a  farmer — no  por- 
tion of  the  aggregate  of  wealth  is  destroyed ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  there  is,  in  almost  every  case,  an 
increase,  which  forms  what  is  usually  called  profit, 
and  is  the  motive  for  such  expenditure.  We 
should  therefore  define  capital  as  that  portion  of 
moveable  stock  which  is  employed,  or  reserved  for 
employment,  in  production  * 

*  The  term  capital  is  employed,  we  think,  by  Smith  and  most 
other  economists  in  far  too  extended  a  sense,  and  requires  to  be 
more  strictly  limited  than  it  usually  is  by  writers  on  the  subject, 
if  we  desire  to  preserve  any  distinction  between  this  and  the 
other  main  elements  of  production,  land  and  labour.  We  can- 
riot  acknowledge  acquired  skill,  lor  instance,  to  be  properly 
called  capital,  unless  by  metaphor.  Otherwise,  what  is  pure 
labour  ?  The  mere  brute  force  of  man  is  rarely,  if  ever,  exert- 
ed without  some  little  skill  to  aid  its  application,  a  skill  ac- 
quired by  practice  or  precept.  There  is  no  occupation  so  me- 
chanical, not  even  that  of  carrying  a  load,  or  breaking  stones  on 
the  highway,  in  which  some  skill  may  not  be  acquired,  so  as  to 
enable  one  man  to  do  more  work  than  another  who  is  less  skill- 
ed. It  is  true  that  much  capital  is  often  expended  by  labourers 
in  the  acquisition  of  skill  and  knowledge,  which  eventually 
bring  in  to  their  owners  an  increased  return  ;  but  when  capital 
has  been  thus  incorporated  with  man  himself  in  the  increase  of 
his  productive  powers,  we  must  consider  it  more  accordant  with 
usage,  and  less  likely  to  create  confusion,  that  it  should  thence- 
forward go  by  the  name  of  ability,  not  capital;  and  its  returns 
be  called  wages,  not  profit. 

Again,  when  capital  has  been  expended  upon  the  permanent 
improvement  of  land,  as  in  clearing,  fencing,  draining,  and  fer- 
tilizing it,  in  roads,  canals,  bridges,  and  buildings,  we  can  no 
longer  think  it  properly  designated  as  capital.  It  is  incorpora- 
ted with  land,  so  as  to  be  inseparable  from  it,  except  by  an  ex- 
tremely slow  process  ;  and  its  returns  are  practically  merged  in 
rent.  This  portion  of  rent  undoubtedly  represents  the  profit  of 
the  capital  which  has  been  spent  on  the  land,  just  as  the  in- 
creased wages  of  an  artificer  represent  the  profit  of  the  capital 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  129 

No  labourer,  we  have  said,  can  work  at  anything 
but  with  the  aid  of  capital,  either  produced  by  him- 

expended  in  teaching  him  his  trade ;  and  we  need  not  forget 
this,  though  it  may  be  more  convenient  and  more  accordant 
with  usage,  instead  of  calling  them  both  profits,  to  call  one 
rent,  the  other  wages.  If  labour,  land,  and  capital  are  to  be 
distinguished  by  any  intelligible  line  of  separation,  we  think  it 
can  only  be  by  including,  under  the  first  term,  all  the  produc- 
tively engaged  powers  of  man,  natural  or  acquired  ;  under  the 
second,  those  of  the  soil  and  the  things  permanently  affixed  to 
it ;  under  the  third,  those  of  the  moveable  substances  man  has 
stored  up  with  a  view  to  production.  In  Political  Economy 
much  labour  has  been  expended  in  vain,  and  great  confusion  in- 
troduced, where  all  is  really  plain  enough,  by  over  refining,  and 
by  ill-judged  endeavours  to  give  a  mathematical  accuracy  to 
definitions  and  propositions  which,  from  the  nature  of  their  sub- 
ject, can  pretend  to  no  more  than  the  grouping  of  phenomena 
according  to  their  most  striking  general  characters.  If,  as  the 
definitions  and  language  of  some  economists  would  contend, 
everything  on  which  capital  has  been  expended  with  a  view  to  a  re- 
turn is  still  to  be  called  capital,  there  is  an  end  to  all  distinction 
between  the  three  primary  elements  of  wealth.  All  labour, 
then,  is  capital,  and  all  land.  The  labourer  must  be  reared  on 
capital  for  years  before  he  can  do  any  work ;  he  must  be  fed 
daily  on  capital,  or  his  ability  vanishes  ;  land  must  be  cleared 
and  cultivated  by  capital,  or  it  will  produce  nothing.  Both  la- 
bour and  land  are,  therefore,  by  this  rule  essentially  capital, 
and  wages  and  rents  are  in  fact  profits !  And  so,  indeed,  says 
Mr.  M'Culloch,  with  all  gravity  (Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, p.  118),  quite  regardless  of  the  circumstance  that  every 
one  of  his  works,  even  that  in  which  he  comes  to  so  startling  a 
conclusion,  is  entirely  made  up  of  a  series  of  disquisitions  on 
the  reciprocal  influence  of  land,  labour,  and  capital,  rent,  wages,  and 
profit.  We  need  hardly  observe  that  things  which  are  identical 
can  have  no  reciprocal  ar.tion  on  each  other.  The  same  spirit 
of  ultra  refinement  has  driven  him  into  the  equally  monstrous 
inconsistency  of  defining  labour  to  be  "  any  sort  of  action  or  op- 
eration, whether  performed  by  man,  the  lower -animals,  ma- 
chinery, or  natural  agents,  that  tends  to  bring  about  a  desirable 
result"  ( Edition  of  Wealth  of  Nations);  thus  making  labour 
include  both  capital  and  land.  Again,  his  definition  of  capital,  as 
"  all  that  can  be  made  to  aid  in  production,"  includes  in  it  land, 
labour  levenue,  and  profit  itself:  while  his  astounding  declara- 
tion that  bubble-blowing  and  turtle-eating  are  productive  occu- 
pations, necessarily  follows  from  these  premises.  If  such  defi- 


130  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

self  or  procured  from  others.  But  production 
could  advance  only  with  the  utmost  slowness  if  ev- 
ery labourer  were  to  endeavour  to  fabricate  for 
himself  the  tools  he  woiks  with,  and  to  raise  from 
the  soil  the  materials  he  employs  and  the  food  he 
consumes.  At  a  very  early  period  in  the  progress 
of  improvement,  it  must  have  been  discovered  by 
experience  to  facilitate  greatly  the  object  of  all  la- 
bour, production,  for  some  classes  of  labourers  to 
occupy  themselves  exclusively  in  making  tools  and 
machinery  of  different  sorts  for  the  use  of  the  re- 
mainder  ;  others  in  the  cultivation  and  preparation 
of  the  different  kinds  of  raw  material  required  for 
the  several  processes  of  industry ;  and  others,  again, 
in  the  growth  and  provision  of  the  food,  clothing, 
and  various  articles  which  are  necessary  for  the 
subsistence  of  the  whole. 

The  stock  of  these  things  which  an  individual 
has  produced,  not  for  his  own  use,  but  with  a  view 
to  their  employment  or  consumption  by  others,  are 
of  course  as  much  his  property  as  if  he  had  intend- 
ed them  for  his  own  use,  and  he  has  the  right  to 
dispose  of  them  to  those  who  want  them  on  the 
most  advantageous  terms  he  can  make.  He  can 
either  sell  them  outright ;  or,  if  it  be  more  conve- 
nient both  to  him  and  to  those  who  wish  to  employ 
the  things,  lend  them,  on  condition  of  receiving  a 
stipulated  remuneration  for  their  loan,  in  addition 
to  the  repayment  of  the  things  themselves,  or  their 
equivalent.  Or,  as  a  third  alternative,  he  may  re- 
tain some  portion  of  his  capital  in  his  possession, 
such  as  machinery  and  implements,  and  with  an- 

nitions  are  adopted,  Political  Economy  becomes  at  once  a  jum- 
ble of  meaningless  phrases. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  131 

other  portion,  consisting,  perhaps,  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  subsistence,  or  their  equivalent,  purchase  the 
labour  of  such  individuals  as  are  willing  to  work 
for  him,  employing  his  capital. 

If  the  entire  capital  a  labourer  works  with  be- 
long to  himself,  whether  by  right  of  purchase  or 
production,  the  whole  produce  of  his  labour  will 
likewise  properly  belong  to  him.  But  if  he  works 
with  the  capital  of  another,  it  is/ evident  that  a  part 
of  the  produce  which  results  from  the  joint  employ- 
ment of  his  labour  and  the  other's  capital  belongs 
of  right  to  the  owner  of  the  capital.  Thus  if  A 
supplies  B  with  either  food,  or  tools,  or  materials, 
upon  which  to  work  at  making  any  article,  it  is  clear 
that  a  proportionate  part  of  the  article  or  of  its  value 
rightfully  belongs  to  A.  What  this  part  should  be 
— what,  in  short,  should  be  the  several  shares  of  the 
labourer  and  the  capitalist  in  any  case,  must  depend 
on  the  relative  value  of  the  capital  supplied  by  the 
one  and  the  labour  furnished  by  the  other  ;  and  this 
can  only  be  equitably  settled  by  previous  agree- 
ment between  the  parties,  voluntarily  entered  into 
by  both  for  their  mutual  advantage. 

The  share  of  the  labourer  is  the  remuneration  of 
his  labour,  and  forms  his  wages.  The  share  of  the 
capitalist  goes,  for .  the  most  part,  to  replace  that 
portion  of  his  capital  which  has  been  consumed, 
damaged,  or  worn  out  in  its  employment.  But 
there  must  remain  to  the  latter  some  surplus  be- 
yond this  ;  for  it  would  be  worth  no  man's  while  to 
employ  his  capital  productively,  if  he  can  gain  no- 
thing by  so  doing.  The  jurpjus  which  accrues  to 
the  capitalist  after  his  capital  lias  been  replaced,  is 
his  only  remuneration  for  its  employment,  and  is 


132  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

called  its  profit.  Profit  is  the  inducement  of  the 
capitalist  to  employ  his  capital  in  production,  just  as 
wages  form  the  inducement  of  the  labourer  to  exert 
his  skill  and  strength  in  the  same  manner.  The 
former  has  obviously  as  much  right  to  be  paid  for 
the  use  of  his  capital,  as  the  latter  for  the  use  of  his 
labour.  Both  have  combined  to  produce  a  joint  re- 
suit,  which  could  not  have  existed  in  the  absence 
of  either.  Without  the  capital,  the  labour  would 
have  been  nearly  unproductive  ;  without  the  labour, 
the  capital  must  have  remained  dormant  and  unin- 
creased,  even  if  secure  from  waste.  The  right  to 
possess  and  freely  dispose  of  capital,  and  to  receive 
whatever  return  or  profit  is  to  be  obtained  by  ac- 
commodating other  parties  with  its  loan,  or  by  em- 
ploying  the  hired  labour  of  others  in  rendering  it 
productive,  stands  evidently  on  precisely  the  same 
ground  as  the  right  to  possess  or  dispose  of  any 
other  thing,  equally  the  produce  of  labour.  The 
expediency  of  protecting  the  free  use  and  employ- 
ment of  property  as  capital,  that  is  to  say,  produc- 
tively, and  the  free  enjoyment  of  its  returns,  is  evi- 
dent from  the  simple  consideration  that,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  such  protection,  no  one  would  produce 
such  things  as  are  necessary  for  aiding  produc- 
tion ;  at  all  events,  no  more  of  them  than  he  want- 
ed for  his  own  use.  Every  labourer  must  then 
make  his  own  tools,  and  raise  from  the  earth  his 
raw  materials  and  his  food.  There  would  be  an 
end  at  once  to  all  that  vast  increase  of  the  general 
stock  of  the  means  of  enjoyment  which  results  from 
the  division  of  labourers  into  the  various  classes  of 
tool-makers,  growers  and  preparers  of  raw  mate- 
rial and  of  food,  house-builders,  furniture-makers, 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  133 

manufacturers  of  clothing,  ornaments,  &c.  Soci- 
ety would  be  resolved  into  its  first  elements.  Each 
man  must  betake  himself  to  the  cave  or  hollow  tree 
for  shelter,  his  nails  for  tools,  berries  and  game  his 
sole  food,  skins  his  only  clothing ;  and  famine  and 
want  must  rapidly  cut  down  the  numbers  of  man- 
kind  to  the  meager  hordes  that  could  alone  support 
themselves  on  such  terms. 

The  profit  obtained  by  the  owner  of  capital  from 
its  productive  employment,  whether  in  his  own 
hands  or  those  of  another  party,  to  whom  it  is  lent, 
is  to  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  compensation  to 
him  for  abstaining  for  a  time  from  the  consumption 
of  that  portion  of  his  property  on  his  personal  grat- 
ification ;  and  the  compensation  is,  therefore,  pro- 
portioned to  the  time  during  which  his  capital  is  so 
engaged,  instead  of  being  spent  upon  himself  as  rev- 
enue. It  has  been  said  time  is  a  mere  word — a 
sound  ;  can  do  nothing,  is  nothing  ;  and  can  there- 
fore neither  have  nor  give  value.*  This  is  a  very 
great  and  extraordinary  mistake.  What  gives 
value  in  exchange  to  labour  ?  Only  that  no  one 
will,  under  a  free  system,  give  his  labour  for  no- 
thing, and,  consequently,  those  who  require  the  la- 
bour of  others  must  pay  for  it.  But  the  same  cause 
gives  value  to  time.  No  one  will  sacrifice  time 
by  allowing  it  to  operate  on  his  property— will  sow 
his  wheat,  for  instance,  and  allow  it  to  remain  a 
twelvemonth  in  the  ground,  or  leave  his  wine  in  a 
cellar  for  years,  instead  of  consuming  these  things, 
or  their  equivalents,  at  once — unless  he  expects 
them  to  acquire  additional  value  in  proportion  to 

*  M'Culloch,  Political  Economy,  p.  314 ;  Mill's  Elements  of 
Political  Economy,  p.  9. 

M 


134  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

the  time  during  which  they  are  so  kept  unconsumed. 
That  they  do  thus  acquire  additional  value,  owing  to 
certain  natural  laws — the  sown  wheat  multiplying 
itself  in  its  crop,  the  kept  wine  improving  in  flavour 
.  — is  notorious.  And  if  this  additional  value  were 
not  to  be  allowed  to  their  owner  in  the  price  he  ob- 
tains on  parting  with  them,  it  is  evident  there  would 
be  no  inducement  to  him  to  employ  his  property  in 
this  productive  manner.  Wheat  would  riot  be 
sown  for  a  future  crop — wine  would  not  be  placed 
in  cellars  to  improve.  Were  it  not  for  the  certain 
prospect  of  the  profit  to  be  obtained  at  a  distant 
time  by  the  productive  employment  of  capital,  and 
that  the  profit,  too,  will  be  proportioned  to  the  time 
which  elapses  before  the  production  is  completed, 
no  one  would  employ  any  portion  of  his  wealth  pro- 
ductively, except  for  the  relief  of  his  own  immedi- 
ate wants  ;  no  one  would  accumulate  wealth  in  a 
productive  shape,  except  for  his  own  consumption. 
Capital,  in  its  true  sense,  would  almost  cease  to  ex- 
ist. If,  under  these  circumstances,  property  were 
accumulated,  as  no  doubt  it  still  would  be,  through 
the  influence  of  the  strong  natural  passion  for  ac- 
cumulation which  exists  in  most  minds,  it  would  be 
hoarded  in  the  form  of  substances  that  could  be  kept 
by  their  owners  without  injury,  but  without  utility : 
gold,  jewels,  plate,  pictures,  furniture, 

"  Rich  stuffs  and  ornaments  of  household." 

And,  in  fact,  in  barbarous  ages,  when  there  existed 
^  a  prejudice  against  the  taking  of  interest  on  property 
lent,  these  were  the  forms  exclusively  assumed  by 
accumulated  wealth.  The  owner  of  such  treas- 
ures might  perhaps  occasionally  gloat  over  them 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  135 

with  a  miserly  satisfaction,  but  still  with  less  grati- 
fication than  if  they  had  been  increasing  through 
their  productive  employment,  while  to  none  but  him- 
self  could  they  be  of  any  service  whatever.  And 
thus  they  remained  locked  up  in  chests  and  closets, 
without  contributing  in  any  degree  to  the  benefit  of 
any  person,  until,  perhaps,  the  strong  temptation 
they  offered  to  the  cupidity  of  the  robber  or  the  ty- 
rant caused  the  destruction  of  their  possessor  and 
the  dispersion  of  his  treasure  into  other  hands,  there 
to  lie  equally  useless,  or  to  be  wasted  in  riot  and 
debauchery. 

But,  when  freedom  is  afforded  to  the  employ- 
ment of  capital,  and  security  to  the  enjoyment  of 
its  returns — when  no  impediment  is  offered  by 
mistaken  legislation,  grasping  tyranny,  or  vulgar 
prejudice,  to  the  voluntary  and  mutually  beneficial 
agreement  of  two  parties,  one  of  which  is  desirous 
of  productively  using  for  a  season  what  the  other 
has  painfully  produced  or  carefully  saved — in  such 
case,  every  one  who  is  able  to  save  is  anxious  to 
give  his  savings  a  productive  form,  by  lending  them 
out  in  the  shape  of  tools,  buildings,  materials,  ma- 
chinery, &c.,  to  labourers,  on  condition  of  receiving 
for  their  use  a  share  of  the  increase  of  wealth  they 
assist  the  latter  in  producing.  In  this  way  the 
miser  of  former  days  is  converted  into  the  em- 
ployer of  labour,  and  the  promoter  of  every  useful 
and  valuable  branch  of  industry.  And  thus  those 
selfish  feelings  of  our  nature,  which  prompt  to  the  in- 
crease and  accumulation  of  wealth — not  as  a  means 
merely,  but  an  end — are  enlisted  in  behalf  of  the 
general  happiness.  The  miser  of  the  present  day 
may  yet,  like  his  prototype  in  the  dark  ages,  gloat 


136  POLITICAL    ECOMOMY. 

over  his  wealth ;  but  he  now  keeps  it  by  him  in 
the  form,  not  of  gold  ingots,  jewels,  and  costly  stuffs, 
but  of  bills,  bonds,  and  securities,  the  represents 
lives  of  that  substantial  wealth  which,  instead  of 
rotting  in  close  coffers,  is  employed  in  the  hands 
of  ceaseless  industry,  levelling  the  forest,  and  cul- 
tivating the  plain,  quarrying  the  mine,  giving  mo. 
tion  to  the  loom,  and  ploughing  the  ocean,  taking 
a  thousand  shapes,  perhaps,  but  in  each  aiding  man 
to  avail  himself  of  the  prolific  powers  of  nature,  and 
multiply  his  means  of  subsistence  and  enjoyment. 
True  it  is,  this  capital  would  produce  no  increase 
without  the  skill  and  labour  of  those  who  employ 
it ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  their  skill  and  labour 
would  produce  nothing — nay,  that  they  could  not 
even  maintain  their  existence,  without  the  capital 
which  they  employ,  and  that  by  which  they  are 
maintained  while  at  work.  The  wealth  which  is 
produced  by  the  union  of  capital  with  skill  and  la. 
bour,  is  evidently,  as  we  have  already  said,  the 
joint  property  of  the  owners  of  the  capital  and  of 
the  skilled  labour.  Each  has  contributed  to  its 
production,  and  each  has  a  right  to  a  share  of  it. 
If  the  capitalist  were  to  be  unjustly  denied  his 
share,  accumulated  property  would  thenceforth 
never  take  the  form  of  capital,  except  that  small 
portion  which  each  man  could  employ  by  himself 
and  for  his  own  immediate  purposes. 

All  this  seems  so  obvious  to  the  most  ordinary 
capacity  as  hardly  to  be  worth  dwelling  upon. 
And  yet  there  are  persons  who  still — in  the  pres. 
ent  light  of  civilization,  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  in  the  midst  of  all  the  evidence  which  is  af. 
forded,  wherever  we  turn  our  eyes,  of  the  prodi. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  137 

gious  part  which  capital  is  playing  in  the  produc- 
lion  of  the  necessaries,  comforts,  and  luxuries  of 
human  life — declaim  against  capital  as  the  poison 
of  society,  and  the  taking  of  interest  on  capital  by 
its  owners  as  an  abuse,  an  injustice,  a  robbery  of 
the  class  of  labourers  !*  Such  blindness  is  to  me 
truly  unaccountable.  That  those  who  observe  the 
prevalence  of  great  misery  among  the  inferior 
classes  of  workmen  in  some  wealthy  countries — 
who  witness  and  deplore  the  fact,  that,  in  spite  of 
all  the  manifold  improvements  which  are  continu- 
ally adding  to  the  productiveness  of  labour,  the 
share  of  the  gross  production  which  falls  to  the 
common  labourer  does  not  increase,  perhaps  even 
diminishes — that,  on  viewing  this  anomaly,  they 
should  conclude  something  to  be  wrong,  is  no  source 
of  astonishment  to  me,  for  I  arrive  at  the  same 
necessary  conclusion  from  the  same  observation. 
But  that  any  sane  person  should  attribute  the  evil  to 
the  existence  of  capital — that  is,  to  the  employment 
of  wealth  in  aiding  the  production  of  farther  wealth, 
instead  of  being  unproductively  consumed,  almost, 
if  not  quite,  as  fast  as  it  is  created,  or  unproduc- 
tively hoarded  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  the  miser — is 
indeed  wonderful.  Why,  without  capital,  the  Isl- 
and of  Great  Britain  would  not  afford  subsistence 
to  a  hundredth  part  of  its  present  population.  De- 
stroy the  security  for  the  free  enjoyment  or  disposal 
of  capital,  deny  its  owner  the  privilege  of  accept- 
ing what  any  one  may  find  it  for  his  advantage  to 
give  for  its  use,  and  every  individual  will  soon  be 

*  See  Hodgskin's  Popular  Political  Economy,  "  Labour  de- 
fended against  the  Claims  of  Capital,"  and  other  works  of  the 
same  author. 


138  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

reduced  to  his  unaided  resources.  He  will  find 
nowhere  any  store  of  food  on  which  to  live  while 
he  is  digging,  and  sowing,  and  protecting  his  im- 
mature crop  ;  no  stock  of  tools  with  which  to  work, 
or  of  clothes  and  other  necessaries  of  existence. 
All  trades  would  stop  at  once,  for  every  trade  is 
carried  on  by  means  of  capital.  Men  would  at  once 
be  reduced  to  the  isolation  and  helplessness  of  bar- 
barism. 

But  perhaps  it  is  in  the  imagination  of  these 
schemers  that  there  should  not  be  a  general  de- 
struction, but  only  a  general  division,  of  the  cap- 
ital  now  existing  among  the  present  race  of  la- 
bourers ;  so  that  each,  it  is  thought,  would  for 
some  time,  at  least,  be  provided  with  a  stock  of 
food,  clothes,  and  tools,  with  which  to  continue  the 
business  of  production.  We  suppose  something 
like  this  is  contemplated.  But,  putting  out  of  sight 
the  injustice,  confusion,  and  attendant  horrors  of 
the  frightful  scramble  which  is  here  disguised  under 
the  smooth  name  of  a  general  division  of  property 
(a  scramble  which,  in  the  extremely  complicated 
and  artificial  state  of  society  characterizing  a  coun- 
try like  ours,  must  be  attended  with  infinitely  more 
violence,  convulsion,  and  disturbance  than  any  po- 
litical catastrophe  on  record),  how,  we  must  beg  to 
ask,  is  production  to  go  on  afterward  ?  In  a  very 
short  time,  a  large  part  of  the  population — all  the 
idle — and  in  such  a  crisis  there  can  be  but  little 
industry — will  have  consumed  their  share  of  the 
plunder  in  riot  and  excess.  Admitting  that  others 
have  gone  to  work  industriously  in  the  production 
of  the  things  they  require,  each  for  himself;  have 
ploughed  and  sown,  and  spun  and  wove ;  have 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  139 

stored  corn  in  their  granaries,  and  cattle  in  their 
homesteads,  and  fuel,  and  clothing,  and  comforts  of 
various  kinds  in  their  lofts,  and  cellars,  and  ware- 
houses, what  is  to  become  of  all  that  large  body 
who,  having  squandered  away  their  share  of  the 
general  booty,  will  have  left  no  means  of  main- 
tenance ?  It  is  clear  that  one  of  two  things  must 
occur.  Either  they  will,  if  sufficiently  numerous 
and  strong,  call  for  another  division  of  property,  that 
is,  once  more  plunder  the  barns,  granaries,  home- 
steads,  and  warehouses  of  the  industrious ;  or,  if 
they  are  not  strong  enough  to  attempt  this,  they 
will  humble  themselves  to  the  owners  of  these  same 
barns  and  warehouses,  and  petition  for  food  and 
clothing  in  return  for  all  they  have  to  offer,  their 
labour ;  that  is  to  say,  they  will  apply  to  them  for 
employment  and  wages.  If  the  owners  of  property 
refuse  their  petition,  starvation  and  disease  must 
rapidly  carry  them  off;  not,  however,  before  they 
have  robbed,  and  plundered,  and  done  all  the  in- 
jury  to  the  remainder  of  society  which  their  despair 
and  destitution  will  prompt.  If  their  request  is  ac- 
ceded to,  the  old  system  of  masters  and  men,  cap- 
italists and  labourers,  will  recommence ;  and  the 
society — at  least  whatever  portion  of  it  we  can  sup. 
pose  to  have  survived  the  shock  of  such  a  convul- 
sion— will  be  reconstituted  on  its  old  and  natural 
principles,  to  recommence  the  difficult  march  of 
improvement,  and  with  the  feeble  hope  of  regain- 
ing, after  the  lapse  of  years,  perhaps  of  ages,  the 
elevated  position  we  are  at  present  so  fortunate  as 
to  occupy,  as  yet  unscathed ;  to  reproduce  slowly 
and  painfully  the  vast  stock  of  accumulated  capital 
which  it  once  possessed,  but  which,  in  a  fit  of  pop- 


140  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

ular  insanity,  had  been  broken  down  and  scattered 
to  the  winds. 

The  security  of  property,  and  the  liberty  of  con- 
suming or  employing  it  in  whatever  way  the  own- 
er pleases  or  finds  most  for  his  interest,  is.  as  has 
been  truly  observed,  the  first  of  the  rights  of  indus- 
try, and  the  essential  condition  of  its  progressive 
activity.  But  of  all  modes  of  employing  property, 
the  very  last  which  it  would  occur  to  an  enlighten- 
ed friend  of  humanity  to  obstruct,  is  its  employ- 
ment in  aiding  production — that  is,  as  capital.  It 
is  quite  clear  that  the  profit  or  interest  to  be  gained 
by  the  employment  of  capital  is  the  principal  motive 
to  its  accumulation,  and  the  only  one  to  its  employ- 
ment in  furthering  production.  It  is  quite  clear  that, 
if  the  owner  of  capital  is  not  allowed  to  make  what 
profit  he  can  upon  it  by  lending  it  to  others,  no  one 
will  accumulate  more  capital  than  he  can  use  him- 
self; and  nearly  all  savings  would  thenceforward 
be  hoarded  in  cellars  and  closets,  instead  of  aiding 
industry  and  facilitating  production. 

Adam  Smith  and  other  economists  distinguish 
two  kinds  of  capital,  fixed  and  circulating.  The 
latter  is  defined  to  consist  of  such  things  as  are 
continually  going  from  and  returning  again  to  their 
owner,  and  afford  a  profit  only  on  being  parted 
with  :  such  is  the  money  which  a  master  keeps  by 
him  to  pay  his  workmen,  his  stock  of  materials 
and  of  worked. up  goods,  and  the  stock  in  trade  of 
all  wholesale  or  retail  tradesmen.  Capital  is  said 
to  be  fixed  which  is  invested  in  buildings,  machin- 
ery, implements  for  facilitating  labour,  improve- 
ments of  land,  roads,  canals,  bridges,  railways, 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  141 

&c. ;  things  which  yield  a  profit,  not  by  being 
parted  with,  but  while  remaining  in  their  owner's 
hands,  and  employed  in  producing  other  things. 
Smith  considers  as  fixed  capital  the  acquired  skill 
and  ability  of  the  members  of  society. 

It  is  doubtless  serviceable  to  distinguish  those 
kinds  of  capital  which  are  rapidly  circulated,  that 
is,  consumed  and  replaced  within  brief  periods,  as 
a  year,  for  example,  from  capital  of  a  more  dura- 
ble nature.  But  it  may  be  surmised  that,  except 
in  the  time  during  which  they  remain  unconsumed 
in  the  employer's  hands,  there  is  no  real  distinc- 
tion between  the  two  classes  of  capital  here  men- 
tioned. The  capital  laid  out  by  a  manufacturer, 
farmer,  or  tradesman  in  the  payment  of  his  labour, 
er's  wages,  circulates  most  rapidly,  being  turned 
perhaps  once  a  week  (if  his  men  are  paid  weekly), 
by  the  weekly  receipts  on  his  bills  or  sales.  That 
invested  in  his  materials  and  stock  in  hand  circu- 
lates less  quickly,  being  turned  perhaps  twice,  per- 
haps four  times  in  the  year,  according  to  the  time 
consumed  between  his  purchases  of  the  one  and 
sales  of  the  other,  supposing  him  to  buy  and  sell 
on  equal  credits.  The  capital  invested  in  his  im- 
plements and  machinery  circulates  still  more  slow- 
ly, being  turned,  that  is,  consumed  and  renewed, 
on  the  average,  perhaps  but  once  in  five  or  ten 
years  ;  though  there  are  many  tools  that  are  worn 
out  in  one  set  of  operations.  The  capital  which  is 
embarked  in  buildings,  as  mills,  shops,  warehouses, 
barns,  in  roads,  irrigation,  &c.,  may  appear  scarce- 
ly to  circulate  at  all.  But,  in  truth,  these  things 
are,  to  the  full,  as  much  as  those  we  have  enumer- 
ated,  consumed  in  contributing  to  production,  and 


142  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

must  be  reproduced  in  order  to  enable  the  producer 
to  continue  his  operations ;  with  this  only  differ, 
ence,  that  they  are  consumed  and  reproduced  by 
slower  degrees  than  the  rest.  The  continual  re- 
pairs they  require  attest  their  consumption  and  re- 
production ;  and  the  capital  invested  in  them  may 
be  turned  perhaps  every  twenty  or  fifty  years.  If, 
then,  the  terms  fixed  and  circulating  capital  are  to 
be  retained,  I  would  confine  the  latter  to  such  por- 
tions of  capital  as  are  renewed  or  repurchased,  and 
consumed  or  parted  with  within  a  year ;  that  of 
fixed  capital  to  such  as  remain  more  than  a  year 
with  the  person  who  employs  them  for  profit.* 

In  some  trades  the  whole  capital  embarked  is 
turned  or  circulated  several  times  within  the  year. 
In  others  a  part  is  turned  oftener  than  once  a  year, 
another  part  less  often.  It  is  the  average  period 
which  his  entire  capital  takes  in  passing  through 
his  hands,  or  making  one  revolution,  from  which  a 
capitalist  must  calculate  his  profits.  Suppose,  for 
example,  that  a  person  engaged  in  a  particular 
business  has  one  half  of  his  capital  invested  in 
buildings  and  machinery,  so  as  to  be  turned  only 
once  in  ten  years ;  that  one  fourth  more,  the  cost 

*  The  futility  of  Smith's  distinction  is  seen  in  his  efforts  to 
separate  a  farmer's  stock  into  fixed  or  circulating  capital,  ac- 
cording as  it  is  kept  by  him  or  parted  with  for  profit.  Thus  the 
cattle  and  sheep  a  farmer  milks  and  shears  are  said  to  be  fixed, 
those  he  grazes  and  breeds,  circulating  capital.  The  seed  he 
throws  into  the  ground  to  produce  next  year's  crop  of  corn  is  a 
fixed,  the  hay  he  feeds  his  breeding  or  lean  cattle  upon  to  produce 
next  year's  crop  of  lambs  or  fat  beef,  a  circulating  capital.  The 
truth  is,  that  with  a  farmer  as  with  any  other  producer,  of  the 
capitalwhich  the  extent  of  his  business  requires,  part  circulates 
more,  part  less  slowly.  The  average  period  in  which  his  entire 
capital  is  turned,  that  is,  parted  with  and  reproduced,  is  the  time 
upon  which  his  profit  is  calculated. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  143 

of  his  tools,  &c.,  is  turned  once  in  two  years  ;  and 
the  remaining  fourth,  employed  in  paying  wages 
and  purchasing  material,  is  turned  twice  in  one 
year.  Say  that  his  entire  capital  is  $50,000. 
Then  his  annual  expenditure  will  be, 

$25,000-H10=$2,500 
12,500H-  2=  6,250 
12,500  X  2=25,000 

$33,750 
71  per  cent,  on  $50,000=  3,750 

$37,500 

To  wnich  sum  his  annual  sales  should  amount 
in  order  to  clear  seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  profit 
on  his  capital,  and  for  this  end  he  must  charge  a 
profit  of  ten  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  his  goods  ;  the 
mean  term  in  which  his  capital  is  turned  being  six- 
teen  months. 

Take  another  case,  in  which  the  fixed  capital  re- 
quired bears  a  smaller  proportion  to  that  which  cir- 
culates rapidly.  Say  that  one  fourth  of  the  entire 
capital  circulates  in  ten  years,  one  fourth  in  one 
year,  and  one  half  twice  in  the  year.  Then  the 
annual  expenditure  will  be, 

$12,500-7- 10=$1,250 
12,500  =  12,500 
25,000  X  2=50,000 

$63,750 
7J-  per  cent,  on  $50,000=   3,750 

Annual  sales  ....  $67,500 


144  POLITICAL   ECONOMY, 

In  this  case  a  profit  of  little  more  than  five  and 
a  half  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  the  goods  will  bring 
in  to  the  producer  seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  an- 
nual profit  upon  his  capital ;  the  entire  capital  cir- 
culating in  a  mean  period  of  less  than  nine  months. 

Should  the  greater  part  of  the  capital  embarked 
circulate  still  more  rapidly,  a  much  smaller  per 
centage  on  the  articles  sold  will  pay  a  fair  profit 
on  the  capital.  Should  the  capital,  for  instance, 
be  turned  five  times  on  the  average  in  the  year,  a 
profit  of  one  per  cent,  on  the  sales  will  bring  in 
five  per  cent,  annual  profit  on  the  capital. 

The  higher  the  profit  that  can  be  obtained  on 
capital,  the  greater,  of  course,  the  encouragement 
to  its  accumulation  and  employment. 

But,  before  we  can  speak  of  profits  as  high  or 
low,  we  must  learn  to  distinguish  matters  which, 
in  ordinary  language,  go  by  the  name  of  profits, 
from  the  interest  or  net  profit  on  capital. 

Many  capitalists  are  themselves  personally  en- 
gaged in  productive  occupations.  The  manufac- 
turer, the  merchant,  the  tradesman,  the  farmer,  the 
master-mechanic,  are  all  capitalist-labourers.  The 
surplus  by  which  the  sum  they  realize  from  the  sale 
of  their  produce  exceeds  the  sum  they  have  expend- 
ed in  its  production,  is  in  common  language  called 
their  profits,  or  living  profits.  But  some  portion  of 
this  is  unquestionably  of  the  nature  of  .wages,  the 
recompense  of  their  personal  labour,  skill,  and  in- 
genuity. Another  portion  often  consists  of  gains 
arising  from  the  possession  of  exclusive  advantages, 
such  as  secret  processes,  patent  instruments  or  ma- 
chinery, superior  connexions,  information,  facilities 
of  local  position,  &c.  Another  portion  consists  of 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  145 

a  compensation  for  the  peculiar  risks  incident  to 
the  business  in  which  the  capital  is  engaged.  It  is 
the  remainder  only  that  properly  forms  the  net 
profit  or  interest  of  capital ;  that  return  for  its 
temporary  use  which  can  b$  got  without  personal 
labour  or  extraordinary  hazard.  This  is  usually 
calculated  as  a  per  centage  on  the  value  in  money 
of  the  capital  employed.  And  it  is  itself  made  up 
of,  1.  Compensation  for  the  sacrifice  of  immediate 
personal  gratification;  2.  Ensurance  against  the 
risk  of  loss  through  circumstances  which  may  af- 
fect the  general  security  of  property.  The  latter 
element  of  interest  depends  on  the  internal  tran- 
quillity of  the  country ;  the  chance  of  foreign  inva- 
sions or  political  convulsions,  such  as  endanger 
property ;  the  efficacy  of  the  laws  which  enforce 
contracts  ;  the  pure  administration  of  justice,  and 
other  similar  considerations,  varying  in  an  extreme 
degree  in  different  times  and  places  ;  insomuch 
that  a  half  per  cent,  in  England  will  be  perhaps  a 
fuller  compensation  for  such  risk  than  two  per  cent, 
in  Ireland,  three  per  cent,  in  Russia  or  France,  and 
ten  per  cent,  in  Turkey. 

Under  similar  circumstances  of  political  risk,  the 
interest  of  money,  or  net  profit  of  capital,  will  vary 
according  to  the  quantity  of  capital  seeking  employ- 
ment as  compared  to  the  demand  for  it.  The  sup- 
ply and  the  demand  of  capital  depend  on  the  rela- 
tive force  of  two  powerful  principles  in  human  na- 
ture  continually  opposed  to  each  other  ;  the  desire 
to  consume,  and  the  desire  to  save  or  amass.  Were 
every  individual  in  a  country  to  consume  the  whole 
of  his  income,  whether  derived  from  rent,  wages, 
N 


146  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

or  profit,  the  amount  of  capital  would  remain  sta- 
tionary. Were  the  owners  of  capital  to  consume 
annually  a  portion  of  their  stock,  while  the  labour- 
ers consumed  the  whole  of  their  wages,  and  the 
landlords  the  whole  of  their  rents,  capital  would 
decrease.  The  history  of  nations,  however,  teach- 
es that,  wherever  institutions  exist  affording  any 
tolerable  security  to  the  peaceful  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  property,  the  saving  principle  is  sure 
so  far  to  prevail  over  its  antagonist  (chiefly  among 
the  industrious  classes)  as  to  cause  a  continual  in- 
crease of  capital,  through  the  accumulation  of  por- 
tions of  income  abstracted  from  revenue  to  be  em- 
ployed as  capital. 

But  not  only  does  the  rate  at  which  capital  in- 
creases, and,  therefore,  its  supply,  depend  on  the  rel- 
ative predominance  of  the  saving  over  the  spending 
passion,  but  the  demand  for  it  is  influenced  in  the 
inverse  sense  by  the  same  circumstance.  If  we 
suppose  the  passion  of  saving  carried  to  excess  in 
any  country — were  every  member  of  society  to  con- 
tent himself  with  the  mere  necessaries  of  life,  and 
endeavour  to  employ  as  capital  all  the  remainder 
of  his  income — it  is  evident  that  the  home  demand 
for  commodities  would  be  limited  to  the  bare  ne- 
cessaries of  life  for  that  number  of  individuals.  All 
the  various  productions  which  art  and  ingenuity 
now  supply  to  gratify  the  infinite  wants  and  ca- 
prices of  mankind,  would  glut  the  market  without 
a  purchaser.  The  demand  for  capital  would  shrink 
almost  to  nothing,  and  profits  fall  to  the  merest 
trifle.  This,  however,  is  an  extreme  supposition, 
which  can  never  be  realized;  for,  if  profits  fall 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  147 

through  the  competition  of  increased  capital,  the 
inducement  to  save  is  weakened,  while  that  to 
spend  is  increased.  It  may,  therefore,  be  safely 
left  to  the  mutually  counteracting  influences  of  the 
two  passions  we  have  spoken  of,  to  determine  that 
current  average  rate  of  net  profit  which  is  the 
measure  of  the  degree  in  which  the  owners  of  cap- 
ital  prefer  prospective  gain  to  present  enjoyment. 
From  what  we  have  now  advanced,  it  is  evident 
that  no  conclusion  can  be  come  to  upon  the  rela- 
tive advantages  of  any  two  trades,  or  ways  of  em- 
ploying  capital,  from  a  mere  statement  of  the  gross 
profits  returned  by  each.  One  may  return  twelve 
per  cent.,  the  other  only  six  ;  yet  the  net  profit,  or 
real  advantages  derived  from  the  capital  embarked 
in  each  by  its  owners,  may  be,  in  reality,  equal. 
The  gross  profits  of  the  first  business  may  be  swell- 
ed by  the  circumstance  of  its  requiring  a  much 
higher  class  of  ability  to  exercise  it  (as  the  trade 
of  making  chronometers  compared  to  that  of  ma- 
king  wooden  clocks) ;  or  through  its  being  carried 
on  with  the  help  of  some  secret  process,  patented 
machinery,  or  peculiar  advantage  of  position  (such 
as  the  vicinity  of  coal  or  iron  mines,  canals,  rail- 
roads, or  other  facilities  of  transport)  ;  or  by  rea- 
son of  the  greater  comparative  risks  to  which  the 
business  is  subjected,  as  that  of  gunpowder-making 
or  ship  ensu  ranee,  over  occupations  not  so  exposed 
to  casualties  ;  or  of  trades  in  which  long  and  large 
credits  are  given  (a  London  tailor's,  for  example) 
over  those  in  which  the  returns  are  quick  and  sure. 
If  the  two  trades  whose  profits  are  compared  are 
not  carried  on  in  the  same  country,  or  under  the 


148  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

same  laws  and  government,  then  the  variation  in 
their  gross  profits  may  be  still  farther  swelled  by 
the  difference  of  the  risk  each  is  subjected  to  from 
political  circumstances  affecting  the  security  of 
property  in  general ;  as  in  the  instance  of  Ireland 
and  Great  Britain.  Nothing,  therefore,  can  be 
more  fallacious  than  the  idea  that  the  amount  of 
the  profits  realized  in  any  business  (in  the  vulgar 
meaning  of  the  term,  in  which  it  has  likewise 
been  used  by  most  political  economists)  forms  a 
just  measure  of  the  real  surplus  returns  of  the 
capital  engaged  in  it ;  nor  can  any  proposition  be 
more  erroneous  than  that  there  ever  will  or  can 
be  anything  like  an  equalization  of  the  gross  profits 
of  every  business. 

Making  abstraction,  however,  of  all  the  above- 
mentioned  extraneous  circumstances  of  risk,  trou- 
ble of  personal  superintendence,  or  peculiar  advan- 
tages, it  is  evident  that  the  net  profit,  or  interest  of 
capital  to  be  realized  from  different  modes  of  em- 
ployment  in  the  same  country  or  under  the  same 
political  circumstances,  will  always  tend  towards 
equality.  And  for  the  reason  that,  as  fresh  capital 
is  being  continually  accumulated  from  fresh  savings, 
there  will  be  a  number  of  persons  continually  on 
the  look-out  for  the  means  of  employing  their  cap. 
ital  to  the  greatest  advantage  ;  and  if  any  one  oc- 
cupation promised  a  higher  return  than  others, 
making  allowance  for  its  peculiar  compensatory 
risks,  difficulties,  labour,  and  other  circumstances, 
it  would  be  chosen  in  preference  by  so  many  of 
these  speculators,  as  by  the  competition  of  their  prod- 
uce in  the  market  must  soon  bring  down  the  returns 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  149 

of  that  particular  trade  to  the  general  level,  perhaps 
for  some  time  below  it.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  con- 
tinual oscillation  of  this  sort  going  on  in  the  returns 
of  capital  in  most  employments,  about  the  mean 
level  or  average  of  net  profit,  and  it  is  accompanied, 
or  rather  caused,  by  an  analogous  oscillation  in  the 
market  value  or  selling  price  of  commodities  about 
the  mean  cost  of  their  production.  These  are  mat- 
ters into  which,  now  that  we  have  obtained  a  tol- 
erably clear  notion  of  the  nature  of  the  primary  el- 
ements of  production,  labour,  land,  and  capital,  we 
must  enter  with  more  detail. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


VALUE. 

Value  necessarily  Relative.— No  real  Value. — General  Value. — 
Means  "  Purchasing  Power." — Elements  of  Value. — Monop- 
oly.—Costs  of  Production. — Rent,  the  Result  of  Monopoly. — 
Does  not  enter  into  Price. — Distinction  between  good  and  bad 
Monopolies. — Demand  and  Supply. — Their  Variations  and  re- 
ciprocal Action. — Cost  of  Production. — Consists  in  Labour, 
Capital,  Time,  Monopoly,  and  Taxation. — Competition  of  Pro- 
ducers, by  which  Supply  and  Demand  are  kept  nearly  Level. 
— Different  Investments  of  Capital  and  Labour. — Partial  Glut. 
—General  Glut  impossible,  except  through  a  Scarcity  of 
Money. 

MUCH  confusion  has  attended  the  use  of  this  word 
in  political  economy,  which  a  simple  analysis  of 
its  meaning  might  have  obviated.  In  common  lan- 
guage, everything  which  is  desirable,  as  health,  wit, 

N2 


150  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

beauty,  goodness,  is  said  to  have  value.  But  po- 
litical economy  meddles  only  with  things  which  are 
the  subject  of  exchanges  ;  and  in  the  discussions  of 
the  science,  value  therefore  must  mean  always 
commercial  value,  or  value  in  exchange.  In  this 
sense,  in  order  to  have  value,  it  is  not  enough  that 
an  object  be  desirable.  Many  things  are  highly 
desirable  for  their  useful  or  agreeable  qualities  (as 
air,  light,  and  water,  for  example) ;  but  yet,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  have  no  value,  because, 
their  supply  being  unlimited,  and  no  trouble  re- 
quired  from  any  one  to  obtain  as  much  of  them  as 
he  can  want,  no  one  will  give  anything  in  exchange 
for  them.  The  moment  their  supply  falls  short  of 
the  quantity  required— in  other  words,  of  the  de- 
mand— or  that  it  becomes  necessary  to  take  some 
trouble  to  obtain  the  quantity  required,  they  ac- 
quire an  exchangeable  value.  On  board  ship,  in 
the  deserts  of  Africa,  and  in  other  places  where 
the  stock  of  water  falls  short  of  the  quantity  re- 
quired, it  obtains  a  value,  which  rises  with  its  scar- 
city. In  cities,  water  is  habitually  sold  at  a  con- 
siderable price  ;  and  this  price  is  generally  propor- 
tioned to  the  trouble  necessary  for  supplying  the 
quantity  required. 

When,  then,  we  speak  of  the  value  of  anything, 
we  must  always  have  reference  to  some  object  of 
comparison  or  exchange.  In  ordinary  phrase, 
money  is  the  understood  object  of  reference.  But 
money  being  merely,  as  has  been  said,  some  one 
commodity  selected  for  particular  qualities  to  be 
used  as  a  general  measure  of  value  and  medium  of 
exchange,  is  itself  liable  to  vary  in  value  ;  it  is 
therefore  clear  that  value  is  not  in  strictness  to  be 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  151 

determined  by  quantity  of  money.  When  employ, 
ed  alone,  in  scientific  arguments,  without  reference 
to  money  or  any  other  single  specific  object,  com- 
mercial  value  must  be  understood  to  mean  ex- 
changeable worth  in  the  general  market,  or  what 
Adam  Smith  called  "  purchasing  power."  An  ob- 
ject, in  fact,  Whether  gold,  silver,  cotton,  or  any 
other  article,  is  said  to  have  risen  or  fallen  in  value 
when  it  will  command  in  exchange  a  larger  or  a 
smaller  quantity  of  other  things  in  the  gross  than 
before.  The  expression  is  purely  relative.  Nor 
can  there  be  such  a  thing  as  positive,  absolute,  or 
real  value.* 

*  Smith  and  his  followers  have  insisted  much  on  everything 
having  a  real  value,  which  they  define  to  consist  of  the  quantity 
of  labour  required  to  produce  it ;  and  they  accordingly  call  labour 
the  natural  standard  or  measure  of  value.  But  it  is  indispensa- 
ble for  a  standard  measure  to  be  something  both  definite  in  its 
nature,  and  as  nearly  as  possible  invariable  in  value. 

But  what  can  be  more  vague  and  indefinite  in  its  meaning,  ot 
more  variable  in  its  value,  than  labour?  In  some  countries  labour 
is  habitually  far  more  severe  and  unremitting  than  in  another ;  so 
that  a  day's  labour  in  each  by  no  means  expresses  an  equal  quan- 
tity of  exertion.  Again,  an  hour's  labour  of  one  man  may  in  the 
same  place  be  worth  a  year's  labour  of  another.  It  is  impossi- 
ble that  anything  so  variable  in  meaning  and  value  can  be  fitly 
employed  as  a  fixed  general  measure  of  the  value  of  other  things. 

It  has,  however,  been  urged,  that  the  exchangeable  value  of 
anything  will  always  depend  on  the  quantity  of  labour  necessary 
to  procure  or  produce  it,  and  on  this  ground  it  is  proposed  as  the 
best  measure  of  value.  One  would  have  supposed  that  the  com- 
monest facts  might  have  sufficed  to  prevent  the  promulgation  of 
this  position.  What  causes  the  workmanship  of  one  artist  to 
sell  for  ten  times  as  much  as  that  of  another  ?  Certainly  not  the 
greater  proportion  of  labour  bestowed  on  it.  Why  will  a  statue 
of  Chantrey,  a  portrait  by  Lawrence,  a  novel  by  Scott,  bring 
twenty  times  the  money  which  the  productions  of  inferior  la- 
bourers will  command  ?  Why,  again,  is  an  acre  of  land  at  Bat- 
tersea  more  valuable  than  one  on  Dartmoor ;  a  diamond  than  a 


152  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

When  a  desirable  commodity  is  to  be  obtained 
in  any  quantity  that  can  be  required  by  a  proportion- 
ate outlay  of  labour,  like  water  from  a  copious 
spring,  or  stone  from  an  inexhaustible  quarry,  its 
value  will,  in  the  long  run,  be  determined  solely  by 
the  comparative  labour  required  to  procure  it.  But 
many  commodities  can  only  be  obtained  at  all  in 

bit  of  glass  ;  an  antique  brass  coin  than  a  modern  gold  one  ?  Not, 
surely,  because  of  the  greater  quantity  of  labour  worked  up  in 
them.  It  is  true  that  these  writers  sometimes  attempt  to  qualify 
their  rule  by  admitting  exceptions  in  the  case  of  those  commodi- 
ties whose  supply  is  limited  by  monopoly,  or  the  exclusive  facili- 
ties for  the  production  of  which  is  possessed  by  certain  individ- 
uals. But  is  there  any  commodity  which  is  not  more  or  less  af- 
fected by  monopoly  ?  Is  there  any  in  the  production  of  which 
superior  advantages  are  not  enjoyed  by  some  parties  over  others, 
enabling  them  to  raise  its  price  in  the  market  ?  All  land,  to  be- 
gin with  the  primary  source  of  every  commodity,  is,  in  nearly  all 
civilized  societies,  monopolized.  And  the  superior  advantages 
of  position  or  quality  belonging  to  one  tract  of  land  over  others, 
enable  its  owner  to  place  a  far  higher  value  on  its  produce  than 
will  just  cover  the  labour  of  production.  All  mines  of  coal  and 
metal,  quarries,  woods,  water-power,  &c.,  are  in  the  same  pre- 
dicament. And  if  we  reflect  that  there  is  no  commodity  which 
is  not,  in  part  or  altogether,  made  up  of  materials  produced  un- 
der these  monopolies,  we  shall  be  led,  perhaps,  to  conclude  that 
the  proposition  of  the  economists  in  question  is  the  very  reverse 
of  the  truth  ;  and  that  there  is  scarcely  any  commodity  the  value 
of  which  is  solely  determined  by  the  quantity  of  labour  required 
to  produce  it. 

The  fact  is,  that  all  these  attempts  to  identify  value  with  la- 
bour, or  to  distinguish  real  from  relative  value,  are  founded  in  a 
misconception  of  the  nature  of  value,  which,  as  we  have  said 
above,  like  length,  weight,  bulk,  or  any  other  quality  suscepti- 
ble of  measurement,  has  essentially  a  relative  only,  not  a  positive 
meaning.  What  is  real  length,  or  real  weight,  or  real  bulk  ?  Just 
as  unintelligible  as  real  value.  Value  is  "  comparative  estima- 
tion as  an  object  of  exchange ;"  and,  when  used  without  refer- 
ence, expressed  or  implied,  to  any  particular  commodity  as  its 
measure,  means  general  value,  or  value  in  exchange  against 
goods  in  general ;  as  Adam  Smith  phrased  it,  "  purchasing  pow- 
er in  the  general  market." 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  153 

limited  quantities ;  and  when  the  quantity  required, 
or  the  demand,  exceeds  the  quantity  produced,  or 
the  supply,  their  value  is  proportionately  enhanced. 
This  permanent  scarcity,  or  rarity,  as  it  is  called, 
is  the  cause  of  the  greater  part  of  the  value  of  all 
precious  stones  and  metals,  superior  works  of  art, 
scarce  and  fine  wines,  antiquities,  and  curiosities 
of  all  sorts.  The  increased  value  which  the  own- 
ers of  such  objects  are  enabled,  from  their  rarity,  to 
obtain  for  them,  beyond  the  mere  cost  of  labour  or 
capital  by  which  they  may  have  been  procured  or 
produced,  is  sometimes  called  monopoly  value.  The 
owner  of  the  vineyard  which  produces  Johannis- 
berg  is  in  possession  of  a  monopoly  which  enables 
him  to  put  a  much  higher  price  on  his  wine  than 
can  be  obtained  for  the  produce  of  other  vineyards 
cultivated  with  the  same  expenditure  of  labour  and 
capital.  A  person  passing  through  the  streets  of 
a  town  is  struck  by  a  stained  and  dirtied  piece  of 
canvass  at  a  broker's  door.  He  buys  it  for  a  trifle, 
cleans  it  with  a  little  labour  and  expense,  and  it 
proves  to  be  a  Claude  or  a  Raphael,  worth  a  hun- 
dred times,  after  this  discovery,  what  it  was  before. 
It  is  the  rarity  of  fine  pictures  by  such  artists  that 
confers  a  monopoly  value  on  them.  Objects  which 
are  unique  of  their  sort  are  often  of  great  value  in 
consequence.  When  there  are  but  two  known 
copies  of  a  scarce  work,  it  has  happened  that  the 
possessor  of  one  has  bought  the  other  at  an  extrav- 
agant price,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  it ;  his 
single  copy  being,  in  its  unique  state,  of  greater 
value  in  the  market  than  the  two  were  before. 
This  species  of  value  arises  likewise  from  other  cir- 
cumstances of  considerable  moment,  and  particu- 
larly from  the  following : 


154  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

Many  commodities — indeed,  the  larger  proportion 
of  goods  in  every  market — can  be  supplied  in  in- 
creased quantities  only  by  an  increased  proportion- 
ate outlay.  This  principle  teems  with  very  impor- 
tant consequences,  and  follows  necessarily  from  a 
very  simple  circumstance,  which,  if  it  had  received 
the  attention  it  deserved  from  political  economists, 
might  have  prevented  their  falling  into  no  little 
confusion  and  error. 

Value,  we  must  beg  our  readers  to  observe,  has 
a  strict  relation  to  time  and  place.  The  value  of 
a  thing  is  the  quantity  of  other  goods  or  of  money, 
that  is,  the  price  it  will  command  at  a  particular 
time  and  at  a  particular  place.  A  thing  may  have 
a  high  value  at  one  time,  as  ice  in  the  dogdays ; 
and  no  value  at  another,  as  the  same  ice  in  Janu- 
ary. Again,  that  which  is  of  little  value  in  one 
place  is  of  great  value  in  another,  as  the  old 
proverb  about  coals  at  Newcastle  teaches.  When, 
therefore,  the  value  of  anything  is  spoken  of,  ref- 
erence is  generally  had  to  some  particular  time 
and  place  ;  and  when  value  in  the  general  market  is 
spoken  of,  the  average  of  local  markets  is  intend- 
ed ;  and,  unless  otherwise  expressed,  the  present 
time. 

Few  objects  are  either  sold  or  consumed  at  the 
time  and  place  in  which  they  are  created.  Near- 
ly all  articles  require  more  or  less  of  both  time  and 
labour,  not  merely  to  grow,  prepare,  and  put  them 
in  marketable  condition,  but  likewise  to  bring  them 
from  the  spot  where  they  are  prepared  to  the  mar- 
ket or  place  where  they  are  sold.  In  fact,  the 
greater  proportion  of  the  most  important  objects  of 
commerce — those  which  compose  the  food  of  man, 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  155 

and  the  raw  materials  of  his  clothing,  comforts, 
and  luxuries — are  raised  by  cultivation  from  the 
surface  of  the  earth.  But  the  process  by  which 
they  are  raised  is  one  which  requires  much  time — 
one  season  at  least,  often  many — as  well  as  an  ex- 
tensive surface  of  soil ;  and  a  very  small  propor- 
tion of  them  are  consumed  on  the  spot  where  they 
are  grown,  or  immediately  upon  their  production. 
Consequently,  the  cost  or  expenditure  necessary  to 
produce  these  things  for  the  bulk  of  their  consu- 
mers, must  consist  not  only  of  the  labour  of  raising 
them,  but  likewise  of  the  time  consumed  in  their 
growth  and  preservation,  and  also  of  the  time  and 
labour  employed  in  bringing  them  to  market. 

The  value  added  to  goods  by  the  time  necessary 
for  preparing,  preserving,  and  bringing  them  to 
market,  is,  as  we  have  seen,  charged  under  the 
name  of  profit  on  the  capital  expended.  That  the 
cost  of  carriage  of  goods  from  the  spot  where  they 
are  prepared  to  the  market  where  they  are  sold,  is 
likewise  a  main  element  in  their  value,  will  not  be 
disputed.  In  some  articles,  as  stone,  coals,  water, 
&c.,  it  makes  up  by  far  the  greater  part  of  their 
cost.  In  order  to  diminish  this  as  much  as  possi- 
ble, the  demand  of  a  particular  market  for  any 
things  which  are  raised  by  cultivation  of  the  soil, 
will  be  supplied  from  the  soils  nearest  at  hand 
that  are  most  fitted  for  the  purpose.  But  it  is  ob- 
vious that,  as  the  demand  in  that  particular  spot 
increases,  the  supply  has  to  be  procured  at  an  in- 
creased cost,  either  from  more  distant  soils — caus- 
ing an  increased  expense  of  carriage  to  market — 
or  from  such  soils  as,  though  nearer  at  hand,  are 
of  inferior  productive  quality  to  those  first  taken 


156  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

into  tillage,  that  is,  which  require  a  greater  expen- 
diture of  labour  or  capital  upon  them  to  ensure  the 
same  quantity  of  produce. 

It  is,  however,  certain  that  there  cannot  be  two 
prices  (or  values)  for  goods  of  the  same  quality  in 
the  same  market  and  at  the  same  time,  since  no 
seller  will  take  less  from  one  buyer  than  he  can 
get  from  another,  and  no  buyer  will  knowingly 
give  more  to  one  seller  than  another  will  take  for 
the  same  article.  The  competition  of  buyers  and 
of  sellers  with  one  another  in  the  same  market, 
will  always  bring  the  value  of  articles  of  the  same 
quality  in  one  market  to  the  same  level.  It  fol- 
lows, then,  that  as  the  demand  in  a  market  for 
such  objects  as  are  produced  under  the  circum- 
stances just  spoken  of  increases,  the  value  in  that 
market  of  the  whole  supply  of  them  must  keep  up 
to  the  level  of  the  value  of  that  part  of  the  supply 
which  is  produced  in  the  market  at  the  greatest 
cost.  If  this  portion  of  the  supply  could  not  com- 
mand that  price  (excluding,  of  course,  the  results 
of  temporary  and  accidental  miscalculations),  it 
would  not  be  brought  to  market.  And  if  that  por- 
tion can  command  that  price,  so  will  all  the  rest  of 
the  quantity  sold.  The  producers  of  this  last  por- 
tion will  be  repaid  precisely  for  the  labour  and  time 
they  have  consumed  in  growing  or  fabricating  their 
article  and  bringing  it  to  market  (in  other  words, 
the  costs  of  its  production — the  capital  employed  in 
producing  it  being  replaced  with  a  profit,  and  the 
labour  repaid  at  ordinary  wages).  But  the  pro- 
ducers  of  all  the  other  portions,  which  were  pro- 
duced under  easier  circumstances,  will  get  a  sur- 
plus beyond  the  costs  of  production.  And  this 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  157 

surplus  will  be  the  greater  in  proportion  to  the 
greater  comparative  advantages  of  proximity  to  the 
market,  of  quality  of  soil,  facility  of  communica- 
tion,  or  other  favouring  circumstances.* 

Rent,  however,  it  must  be  recollected,  includes, 
in  its  ordinary  acceptation,  many  other  things  be- 
sides the  gain  arising  in  the  manner  we  have  de- 
scribed from  natural  or  casual  advantages,  whether 
of  soil  or  position.  A  vast  amount  of  labour  and 
capital  has  been  laid  out  by  its  successive  owners 
or  occupiers  ;  much  of  which  remains  permanently 
invested  in  the  soil,  adding  to  its  value  and  pro- 
ductiveness.  And  the  portion  of  rent,  which  is  at- 
tributable to  these  acquired  or  artificial  advantages, 
must  be  considered  as  representing  the  profit  on 
the  capital  so  expended.  If  the  expenditure  were 
to  be  calculated  which  has  been  from  first  to  last 

*  We  beg  the  reader  to  observe  that,  whenever  we  employ 
the  word  to  produce,  or  any  of  its  derivatives,  producer,  produc- 
tion, and  produce,  we  have  reference  to  the  production  of  an 
article  at  the  market  where  it  is  offered  for  sale.  It  would  be  very 
convenient,  and  tend  materially  to  settle  many  disputed  ques- 
tions of  political  economy,  if  all  writers  would  bear  in  mind  and 
adhere  to  this  rule  in  their  employment  of  the  term.  The  pro- 
ducer of  corn  is  properly  not  the  farmer  alone  who  raises  it 
from  the  soil,  but  also  the  person,  whether  farmer  or  corn-deal- 
er, who  produces  it  at  the  market.  The  farmer  is  the  grower 
simply,  until  he,  or  some  other  for  him,  brings  it  to  market  and 
offers,  i.  e.,  produces  it  for  sale.  The  cost  of  production  in- 
cludes the  cost  of  carriage  to  market  as  well  as  of  the  growth 
of  the  corn.  In  manufactures,  it  is  not  the  man  who  weaves 
the  cloth  or  cotton  that  is  its  producer,  but  the  person  who, 
having  defrayed  the  costs  of  the  raw  material,  the  manufacture, 
and  the  carriage  to  market— of  the  whole  operation,  in  short,  to 
which  its  existence  is  owing,  produces  it  there  for  sale.  So  the 
producer  of  an  article,  raised  or  fabricated  abroad  to  be  sold  in 
this  country,  is  not  the  foreign  grower  or  manufacturer,  but  the 
person,  whether  foreign  or  native,  who  produces  it  for  sale  in 
our  markets.  (To  produce,  v.  a.,  to  offer  to  notice ;  to  exhibit 
to  the  public  ;  to  bring  forward.— Johnson-) 

o 


158  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

kid  out  in  permanent  improvements  of  the  land  of 
this  country,  for  example,  in  the  original  clearing 
and  enclosure,  in  drainage,  making  of  roads,  farm- 
buildings,  fences  and  gates,  water-courses,  planta- 
tions, irrigation,  &c.,  it  would  appear  that  by  far 
the  larger  part  of  the  rent  received  for  landed  es- 
tates consists  of  the  necessary  profit  on  this  outlay. 
Of  the  remainder,  part  accrues  from  peculiar  ad- 
vantages with  respect  to  proximity  to  markets  or 
manures  ;  part  from  superior  natural  fertility  of 
soil.  It  is  to  this  last  portion  only  of  the  ordinary 
rent  of  land  that  the  greater  number  of  political 
economists  have  confined  their  attention  ;  and  this 
exceedingly  narrow  and  imperfect  view  of  the  na- 
ture of  rent  has  necessarily  led  them  into  much  in- 
consistency and  error.* 

*  "  Rent,"  says  Mr.  Ricardo  (and  Messrs.  M'Culloch,  Mill, 
and  many  other  economists  have  adopted  his  definition),  "  Rent 
is  that  portion  of  the  produce  of  the  earth  which  is  paid  to  the 
landlord  for  the  use  of  the  original  and  indestructible  natural  powers 
of  the  soil" — (Ricardo,  Political  Economy,  chap.  ii.  ;  Mill's  Ele- 
ments, p.  39;  M'Culloch's  Principles,  p.  431.)  This  definition 
excludes  all  that  large  portion  of  rent  which  we  have  noticed 
above  as  resulting  from  artificial  improvements,  as  well  as  all 
that  other  large  portion  which  is  the  consequence  of  favourable 
position  with  respect  to  markets,  communications,  manures, 
&c.  The  "  original  indestructible  powers"  of  the  British  soil 
were  the  same  in  the  time  of  the  Heptarchy  as  they  are  now. 
How  is  it,  then,  that  they  brought  in  no  rent,  or  next  to  none, 
at  that  time  ?  If  rent  depends  solely  on  natural  fertility  of  soil, 
why  do  some  acres  of  land  in  England  let  for  ten  pounds  a  year, 
while  an  acre  of  equal  fertility  in  Canada  will  not  command  a 
sixpence  of  rent !  While  this  school  of  political  economists  de- 
clare rent  to  be  solely  owing  to  the  "  difference  in  natural  fertil- 
ity of  soils,"  and  build  their  whole  science  upon  this  principle 
or  "theory  of  rent,"  as  they  call  it,  other  writers  have  set  up 
another  in  its  place,  viz.,  that  rent  is  solely  owing  to  the 
"pressure  of  population  against  produce,  causing  a  rise  in 
prices." — (Westminster  Review ;  True  Theory  of  Rent,  &c.) 
This  explanation,  however,  is  not  much  nearer  the  truth  than 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  159 

Besides  the  peculiar  gains  which  are  derived  in 
husbandry  from  superior  fertility -of  soils  or  from 
proximity  to  market,  manures,  &c.,  there  are  anal- 
ogous  gains  which,  in  every  branch  of  industry, 
result  from  secret  processes,  patented  machinery, 
extraordinary  powers  of  body  or  mind,  advanta- 
geous connexions,  and,  in  short,  from  every  instru- 
ment of  production  which  is  not  universally  access- 
ible. Each  of  these  affords  a  revenue  quite  dis- 
tinct from  that  which  is  yielded  by  the  capital  and 
labour  employed  in  producing  an  article.  For  the 
sake  of  convenience,  this  species  of  revenue  has 
been  termed,  as  we  have  said,  a  monopoly  gain ; 
but  the  term  is  unfortunate,  inasmuch  as  it  conveys 
to  most  minds  the  impression  that  the  advantage 
enjoyed  is  at  the  expense  of  others,  and  has  been 
obtained  by  unfairly  excluding  them  from  competi- 
tion. It  is  evident,  however,  that,  in  many  instan- 
ces, this  is  not  the  case.  One  who  has  been  en- 

the  other.  Rent  may  certainly  exist  in  a  society  whose  numbers 
are  in  no  degree  excessive ;  nay,  it  may  increase,  at  the  same 
time,  with  an  increase  in  the  productiveness  of  agriculture,  and 
in  the  share  of  its  produce  falling  to  each  individual  inhabitant ; 
just  as  it  may  arise  and  increase  where  all  soils  are  alike  in  fer- 
tility. It  is,  in  fact,  the  simple  consequence  of  an  increased 
local  demand  requiring  an  increased  local  supply,  which  supply 
must  be  procured  either  from  inferior  soils  close  at  hand,  or  from 
the  best  soils  at  a  greater  distance.  It  may  and  does  often  hap- 
pen, that  the  increased  supply  can  be  sold,  through  continued 
improvements  in  agriculture  or  the  arts,  at  a  less  price,  or  can  be 
commanded  by  the  individual  consumers  in  greater  quantity  than 
at  an  earlier  period  :  and  yet  there  will  be  an  increase  of  rent 
arising  from  the  superior  advantages  of  position  or  quality,  &c,, 
of  some  lands  over  others,  for  supplying  the  actual  demand. 
Rent  consists,  then,  of  the  difference  between  the  expense  of 
producing  that  portion  of  the  required  supply  which  is  produced 
under  the  least  favourable  circumstances,  and  that  produced 
from  the  land  which  yields  the  rent. 


160  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

dowed  by  nature  with  extraordinary  powers,  or  has 
acquired  superior  skill  by  patient  application,  and 
perhaps  at  much  expense,  is  clearly  entitled  to 
whatever  benefits  he  can  compass  by  a  fair  exer- 
cise of  such  powers  or  skill.  So  he  who  has  spent 
years,  and  laid  out  thousands  in  perfecting  a  ma- 
chine or  process  by  which  one  man  can  do  the 
work  of  ten,  ought  to  be  repaid  for  his  labour  and 
expense  ;  and  hence  the  equity  of  protecting  him 
by  law  (or  patent)  in  the  exclusive  use  of  his  in- 
vention for  a  term  of  years.  If  the  law  cannot  or 
will  not  interpose  for  this  purpose,  he  has  evidently 
a  right  to  protect  himself  by  keeping  his  invention 
a  secret.  This  is  not  only  just,  but  eminently 
useful  to  the  public.  Production  is  facilitated,  and 
the  advantage  of  this  must  be  experienced  by  oth- 
ers as  well  as  by  himself.  Such  peculiar  advan- 
tages, too,  when  possessed  by  one  person,  provoke 
to  emulation.  They  hold  up  to  view  the  prizes 
that  are  to  be  gained  by  excellence  of  any  kind  ; 
and  thus  each  producer  is  stimulated  to  increase 
to  the  utmost  his  own  advantages  over  others. 

It  is  not  easy  to  define  accurately  in  words  the 
distinction  which  separates  beneficial  or  harmless 
from  injurious  monopolies.  Generally  speaking, 
that  which  results  from  superiority,  acquired  and 
exercised  in  a  fair  and  open  manner,  is  beneficial ; 
such  as  are  obtained  or  supported  by  fraud  or  force 
are  publicly  injurious.  No  one  blames  Chantrey 
or  Lawrence  for  charging  as  high  a  price  as  they 
can  obtain  for  their  productions.  No  one  disputes 
the  general  advantage  of  allowing  the  grazier  who 
produces  the  best  ox,  or  the  farmer  who  brings  up 
the  finest  sample  of  corn,  in  the  market,  to  carry 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  161 

away  the  topping  price.  No  one  doubts  the  right 
of  a  merchant,  who,  from  superior  sagacity,  has  fore- 
seen the  probable  future  deficiency  of  some  article 
in  the  market,  and  provided  a  stock  of  it  against  the 
time,  to  make  what  extra  profit  he  can  of  his  spec- 
ulation.  So  no  one  quarrels  with  great  landed  pro- 
prietors for  charging  as  high  a  ground-rent  as  they 
can  obtain,  even  though  it  reach  five  guineas  a  foot, 
for  their  land  in  the  vicinity  of  wealthy  and  populous 
towns.  But  if  the  owners  of  such  land,  not  content 
with  the  extra  price  or  rent  they  may  freely  com- 
mand for  its  employment  as  building-sites,  pleas- 
ure-grounds, market-gardens,  accommodation-pas- 
tures, and  from  the  saving  in  the  expense  of  con- 
veyance of  its  produce  to  market  occasioned  by 
its  proximity — if,  we  say,  not  content  with  these 
accidental  and  natural,  but  just  and  fair  advanta- 
ges, they  were  to  attempt  to  enhance  the  value  of 
their  monopoly,  supposing  them  to  have  the  power, 
by  any  legislative  interference  with  the  freedom  of 
trade,  as,  for  instance,  by  interdicting  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town  from  obtaining  their  supplies  of 
vegetables,  meat,  butter,  &o.,  from  other  lands — 
such  monopoly  would  undoubtedly  be  one  of  a  most 
unfair  and  pernicious  character.  It  would  be  no- 
thing less  than  a  conspiracy  to  raise  the  price  ot 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

Another  hurtful  kind  of  monopoly  is  that  obtain- 
ed by  the  combination  or  conspiracy  of  parties,  who, 
being  enabled  to  command  the  entire  supply  of  any 
article  to  a  market,  use  this  power  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  an  extraordinary  price  upon  it,  restrict- 
ing the  supply  to  the  community  in  order  to  enhance 
its  value,  and,  consequently,  to  increase  their  surplus 
O  2 


162  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

profits  upon  their  expenditure.  An  instance  of  this 
is  the  combination  of  the  great  coal-owners  of  the 
north  of  England,  which  was  exposed  in  a  late  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Lords.  Another,  that  of 
the  companies  by  which  London  is  supplied  with 
water,  who  have  divided  the  town  among  them- 
selves,  engaging  mutually  to  confine  themselves 
within  their  several  districts  ;  by  which  they  are  en- 
abled,  without  fear  of  competition,  to  charge  the  pub- 
lic an  exorbitant  price  for  this  most  necessary  arti- 
cle, and  to  clear  extravagant  profits  for  their  share- 
holders. If  any  attempt  is  made  by  a  stranger  to 
compete  with  these  banded  monopolists,  they  can, 
by  their  combined  influence,  and  by  a  temporary 
relaxation  of  their  prices,  deter  him  effectually 
from  the  vast  outlay  of  capital  which  would  be  ne- 
cessary before  he  can  even  commence  his  compe- 
tition, and,  having  thus  driven  him  away,  they  can 
return  to  their  old  charges.  So  that  the  public  are 
completely  at  their  mercy. 

For  several  centuries  there  prevailed  a  strong 
prejudice  against  the  forestallers  of  grain  and  oth- 
er provisions  :  dealers,  that  is,  who,  in  the  appre- 
hension of  a  scarcity,  buy  them  up  with  the  inten- 
tion of  obtaining  a  monopoly  of  the  market,  and 
being  able  to  retail  (regrate)  them  out  afterward 
with  a  high  profit.  But  the  growing  enlighten- 
ment of  the  age  has  placed  within  the  comprehen- 
sion of  nearly  every  one,  that  such  a  process,  un- 
less the  result  of  combination,  is,  on  the  whole,  far 
more  beneficial  than  hurtful  to  the  people  who  con- 
sume the  provisions.  And  this  because  the  fore- 
staller,  anticipating  the  dearth  of  provisions  at  an 
earlier  period  than  others,  by  his  demand  raises 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  163 

their  price,  and  thus  discourages  their  consump. 
tion  and  waste,  and  diminishes  the  severity  of  the 
subsequent  scarcity.  The  forestaller  may  gain  a 
high  profit  by  selling  dear  that  which  he  bought 
cheap  ;  but  if  his  sagacity  had  not  led  him  to  spec- 
ulate on  obtaining  this  high  profit  by  large  purcha- 
ses and  reserves,  the  probability  is  that  there  would 
have  been  no  supply  at  all  for  the  public  ;  at  all 
events,  much  less  than  has  been  secured  by  his 
providence.  In  fact,  such  speculating  provision- 
dealers  tend,  by  their  operations,  to  distribute  the 
supply  pretty  equally  throughout  the  year,  which, 
without  their  aid,  would  be  necessarily  so  irregular 
as  to  occasion  profusion  and  waste  at  one  period, 
and  dearth  and  famine,  as  their  consequence,  at 
another. 

The  true  rule,  therefore,  with  respect  to  monop- 
olies, seems  to  be,  that  every  one  should  be  left  at 
liberty  to  avail  himself  of  whatever  peculiar  advan- 
tages fall  to  him  by  accident,  or  through  his  own 
exertions  fairly  and  freely  exercised  in  concurrence 
with  other  competitors  ;  but  that  no  one  be  permit- 
ted to  increase  his  own  superiority  by  destroying 
or  unfairly  restraining  the  powers  of  others.  And, 
likewise,  that  the  law  (except  in  cases  when  the 
public  benefit  is  unquestionably  interested)  should 
abstain  altogether  from  either  conferring  exclusive 
advantages,  or  breaking  them  down  when  adventi- 
tiously established  and  not  unfairly  exercised. 

DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY. 

What  we  have  advanced  on  the  elements  of  val- 
ue makes  it  evident  that  the  value  (or  selling  price) 
of  an  article  at  any  time  and  place  is  determined 


164  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

by  the  proportion  of  the  demand  to  the  supply  at  that 
time  and  place.  And  it  is  a  change  in  that  propor- 
tion which  occasions  the  rising  or  falling  of  prices. 
The  extent  of  the  demand  for,  and  supply  of  arti- 
cles, and,  consequently,  their  relation  to  each  other 
in  any  market,  is  liable  to  be  affected  by  a  variety 
of  circumstances,  some  temporary,  others  more  or 
less  permanent  in  their  operation. 

I.  The  extent  of  the  Demand  for  a  thing  depends 
on  the  intensity  of  the  desire  for  its  possession 
among  a  larger  or  smaller  number  of  persons,  and 
likewise  upon  their  means  of  purchasing  it.  As 
Adam  Smith  long  since  said,  "  Every  beggar  may 
desire  a  coach  and  six;"  but  to  be  effectual,  to  make 
itself  sensible  as  a  demand  to  the  coachmakers,  the 
desire  must  be  accompanied  by  a  power  of  pur- 
chase ;  that  is,  by  an  equivalent  supply  of  money 
or  money's  worth. 

The  demand  for  those  objects  which  are  employ, 
ed  as  the  principal  subsistence  and  necessary  com- 
forts of  a  people  varies  least  of  all,  being  chiefly 
determined  by  the  number  of  the  population  to  be 
supported,  which  is  not  liable  to  sudden  change, 
and  to  their  habits,  which,  though  varying  in  the 
course  of  long  periods  of  time,  are  equally  unsus- 
ceptible of  sudden  fluctuations.  A  deficiency  in 
the  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  mass  of  the  pop- 
ulation for  purchasing  the  necessaries  of  life,  such 
as  is  occasioned  by  a  sudden  rise  in  their  price,  un- 
accompanied by  a  proportionate  rise  in  the  wages 
of  labour,  cannot  but  diminish  the  effectual  demand 
for  them  ;  not,  however,  in  the  proportion  of  the  in- 
creased price  ;  every  other  possible  sacrifice  being 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  165 

naturally  made  to  obtain  a  sufficiency  of  necessa- 
ries. A  fall  in  the  price  of  these  things,  on  the  oth- 
er hand,  does  not  occasion  a  fully  proportionate  in- 
crease of  demand,  except  in  those  countries,  and 
they  are  unhappily  many,  the  bulk  of  whose  inhab- 
itants are  at  all  times  ill  supplied  with  necessaries, 
and  are,  therefore,  limited  in  their  demand  for  them 
only  by  a  deficiency  of  their  "  power  of  purchase." 
The  demand  for  articles  of  ornament  and  conve- 
nience is  liable  to  much  more  rapid  and  frequent 
changes.  The  caprice  of  man  exercises,  it  is  well 
known,  a  far  more  powerful  sway  over  the  intensity 
of  his  desire  for  superfluities  than  over  his  neces- 
sary wants.  Fashion  prides  itself  on  singularity, 
and  is  ever  in  search  of  novelty.  So  that  change 
is  of  its  very  essence.  And  such  changes  must  oc- 
casion- a  proportionate  fluctuation  in  the  demand 
for  these  articles,  as  well  as  for  all  such  as  are  con- 
sumed in  their  production  and  supply.  The  intro- 
duction of  a  new  article  which  obtains  favour  with 
the  public,  will  suddenly  give  rise  to  a  new  and  ex- 
tensive demand  for  that  particular  commodity,  and 
proportionately  diminish  the  demand  for  some  oth- 
er whose  place  it  takes.  Thus  cotton  or  Berlin 
gloves  have  of  late  been  very  generally  substituted 
for  leather  gloves,  to  the  great  temporary  detriment 
of  the  makers  of  the  latter  article,  and  the  proper-  >• 
tionate  benefit  of  the  cotton  hosiers.  The  gilt-but- 
ton-makers have  been  severe  sufferers  from  the  gen- 
eral introduction  of  the  fashion  of  covered  silk  but- 
tons. At  one  time  printed  cotton  goods  are  the 
universal  wear,  and  the  next  year  silks,  perhaps, 
are  in  almost  equal  vogue.  A  general  mourning 
in  England,  occasioned  by  the  death  of  one  of  the 


166  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

royal  family,  raises  the  demand  for  all  dark  goods, 
and  depresses  that  for  the  gayer  fashions.  For- 
tunately for  the  producers  of  such  articles  of  dress, 
these  changes  of  taste,  though  often  very  rapid  in 
a  particular  class,  rarely  occur  simultaneously 
throughout  all  the  classes  of  society.  A  mode  of 
dress  which  has  gone  out  of  fashion  among  one 
class,  will  perhaps  be  just  introducing  itself  in 
another,  to  descend,  when  the  latter  have  worn  it 
out,  to  the  lower  and  more  numerous.  So  that  the 
demand,  when  slackening  in  one  quarter,  is  usually 
increasing  in  another.  And  the  stuffs  which  have 
been  long  discarded  by  those  whose  caprice  origi- 
nates a  fashion,  are  for  a  considerable  time  after- 
ward  in  full  demand  among  a  herd  of  tardy  imita- 
tors. 

II.  The  supply  of  goods  is  determined  by  the 
circumstances  that  affect  their  production,  and  is 
subject  to  still  greater  variations  than  the  demand. 
Those  things  which  are  raised  directly  from  the 
soil  by  agriculture,  comprehending  not  only  food, 
but  the  raw  material  of  nearly  all  manufactures, 
are  liable  to  great  and  frequent  fluctuations  in  sup- 
ply, from  the  variable  character  of  the  seasons. 
Abundant  crops,  occasioned  by  favourable  seasons, 
cause  the  market  to  overflow  with  a  quantity  of 
such  commodities  far  beyond  the  average  supply. 
Unfavourable  seasons  create  a  general  deficiency 
below  the  average.  Other  obvious  circumstances 
often  affect  for  a  time  the  supply  of  a  market  with 
particular  commodities,  such  as  the  early  setting  in 
of  a  frost,  by  which  the  harbours  in  high  latitudes 
are  blocked  up  before  the  vessels  loading  there  can 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  167 

get  away ;  the  imposition  of  an  embargo  on  the 
exporting  harbour  ;  or  the  interruption  of  the  com- 
merce  between  different  countries  by  the  breaking 
out  of  war. 

These  causes  of  variation  in  the  supply  of  goods 
are  more  or  less  temporary  and  casual  in  their  na- 
ture. The  circumstances  which  determine  per- 
manently, and  on  the  whole,  the  average  supply  of 
goods  to  meet  the  demand  for  them,  are  those 
which  may  be  included  under  the  general  designa- 
tion of  their  necessary  costs  of  production. 

The  cost  of  producing  any  article  comprehends, 
1.  The  labour,  capital,  and  time  required  to  create 
and  bring  it  to  market  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
meet  the  effectual  demand  for  it.  2.  The  addi- 
tional charges  occasioned  through  the  entire  sup- 
ply being  produced  under  monopoly  of  any  kind. 
3.  Whatever  additional  charges  are  occasioned  by 
the  amount  of  taxation,  to  which  it,  or  any  of  the 
materials  employed  in  its  production,  may  be  sub- 
jected by  the  authorities  possessing  that  power. 

1.  That  portion  of  cost  which  consists  of  the 
labour,  capital,  and  time  required  for  creating  and 
bringing  to  market  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  article, 
is  by  far  the  most  important.  The  money  cost  of 
the  requisite  labour  will  depend  on  the  current  or 
ordinary  remuneration  of  such  labour  at  the  sev- 
eral places  where  it  may  be  required.  Thus  the 
expense  of  producing  corn  in  Great  Britain  or  the 
United  States  will  materially  depend  on  the  current 
wages  of  agricultural  labourers  in  those  countries. 
Any  general  fall  or  rise  in  the  wages  of  any  class 
of  labourers  engaged  in  production,  goes  to  lower 
or  raise  the  money  cost  of  the  articles  they  pro- 


168  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

duce.  Hence  one  reason  of  the  struggle  which  so 
often  arises  between  labourers  and  their  employers 
as  to  the  rate  of  wages  ;  it  being  the  apparent  in- 
terest of  the  employer  to  diminish  this  main  item 
in  his  expenses,  with  the  view  of  increasing  his 
share  of  the  sum  for  which  he  expects  to  sell  his 
commodity. 

Again,  the  money  cost  of  the  capital  consumed 
will  depend,  not  on  its  amount  only,  but  also  on 
the  time  during  which  it  is  engaged,  the  risks  to 
which  it  is  exposed,  and  the  current  rate  of  inter- 
est which  its  owner  will,  of  course,  expect  to  re- 
ceive for  its  employment. 

But  the  real  cost,  or  actual  amount  of  labour, 
capital,  or  tinae  required  for  the  production  of  any. 
thing,  will  vary  with  the  greater  or  less  skill,  knowl- 
edge, and  appliances  of  all  kinds  available  in  aid 
of  it. 

Every  improvement  in  the  processes  by  which 
commodities  of  any  kind  are  produced,  contributes 
towards  the  great  end  of  lessening  the  producing 
costs  of  commodities  by  the  saving  of  time,  capi- 
tal, or  labour.  Every  step  that  is  made  in  any  of 
the  arts  and  sciences  subservient  to  production, 
tends  directly  to  increase  man's  power  over  na- 
ture ;  to  render  a  fixed  amount  of  his  labour  more 
efficient,  that  is  to  say,  productive  of  a  larger 
amount  of  the  objects  of  his  desire.  Some  of  the 
most  striking  of  such  improvements  are  those  con- 
tinually  made  in  the  means  of  communication. 
The  formation  of  new  roads,  canals,  and  rail- 
roads, with  the  introduction  of  steam  navigation, 
have  been  most  conspicuous  among  the  causes 
which  have  operated  of  late  years  to  reduce  the 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  169 

cost  and  facilitate  the  supply  of  commodities,  par- 
ticularly of  the  more  bulky  articles.  An  instance 
in  point  is  afforded  by  the  vast  increase  in  the  traf- 
fic between  Ireland  and  the  western  coast  of  Eng- 
land since  1824,  the  period  when  steamboats  were 
first  employed  in  the  Irish  channel.  The  markets 
of  England  have  thus  received  a  prodigious  addi- 
tion to  their  supplies  of  provisions.  Lancashire 
has  especially  profited,  from  the  contemporaneous 
opening  of  her  great  railroad,  which,  receiving  the 
Irish  produce  from  the  vessels  at  Liverpool,  car- 
ries it  forward  with  the  utmost  expedition,  and  for 
a  trifling  charge,  to  Manchester  and  its  neighbour- 
hood. Fresh  meat,  eggs,  and  butter  are  thus  con- 
veyed, with  almost  miraculous  cheapness  and  ce- 
lerity, from  the  very  centre  of  Ireland  (whence  ca- 
nals take  them  to  Dublin)  into  the  heart  of  the  most 
populous  manufacturing  district  of  Britain.  The 
cost  of  provisions  in  these  latter  places  must  be 
proportionately  diminished. 

The  capital  employed  in  production  consists 
chiefly  of  appliances  of  various  kinds  for  facilita- 
ting labour.  The  main  object  of  the  invention  of 
tools  and  machines  of  every  description  is  the 
economy  of  labour,  with  a  view  to  diminish  the 
real  cost  of  production.  It  is  chiefly  to  the  won- 
derful progress  made  of  late  years  in  the  arts  of 
mechanical  invention  that  we  are  indebted  for  the 
superiority  of  modern  society  over  that  of  earlier 
ages,  in  the  abundance  of  luxuries,  comforts,  and 
conveniences  at  the  disposal  of  every  class.  The 
immense  wealth  that  has  been  produced  and  accumu- 
lated is  to  be  ascribed  almost  entirely  to  the  stupen- 
dous inventions  and  discoveries  of  Watt,  Wedge- 
P 


170  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

wood,  Hargraves,  Arkwright,  Fulton,  Compton, 
Cartwright,  Whitney,  and  a  few  others.  "  These 
added  so  prodigiously  to  our  capacities  of  produc- 
tion, that  we  went  on  rapidly,"  says  a  British  wri- 
ter, "  increasing  in  population  and  wealth,  notwith- 
standing  an  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  be- 
lieved  that  an  individual  can,  at  this  moment,  by 
means  of  the  improved  machinery  now  in  use, 
produce  about  two  hundred  times  the  quantity  of 
cotton  goods  that  an  individual  could  produce  at 
the  accession  of  George  III.  in  1760  !  The  im- 
provement in  other  branches,  though  for  the  most 
part  less  striking  than  in  the  cotton  manufacture, 
is  still  very  great ;  and  in  some,  as  in  the  lace 
manufacture,  it  is  little,  if  at  all,  inferior."*  The 
loom  is  one  of  those  inventions  which  have  most 
signally  advanced  the  productive  capacity  of  man. 
"  Ulloa  mentions  that  the  Indians  of  South  Amer- 
ica have  no  other  mode  of  making  cloth  than  by 
taking  up  thread  after  thread  of  the  warp,  and 
passing  the  woof  between  them  by  the  hand  ;  and 
he  adds  that  they  are  thus  frequently  engaged  for 
two  or  three  years  in  the  weaving  of  hammocks, 
coverlets,  and  other  coarse  cloths,  which  a  Euro- 
pean would,  by  means  of  his  loom,  produce  in  as 
many  days,  or  probably  hours. "f 

Facts  like  these  strongly  illustrate  the  immense 
benefits  derived  by  society  from  improvements  in 
machinery,  by  which  the  real  cost  of  consumable 
goods,  or  the  time  and  labour  required  for  their 
production,  are  diminished.  The  prejudice  against 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  cxii.,  p.  314. 
f  Ibid.,  p.  315. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  171 

machinery,  still  prevalent  among  the  ignorant,  and 
which  has  often  shown  itself  in  outrage  and  rioting, 
arises  from  the  circumstance  that  any  change  in 
the  mode  of  production  of  particular  goods  throws 
out  of  employment  for  a  time  many  of  those  who 
were  occupied  on  the  superseded  method;  and 
who  are  unfitted,  by  their  habits,  situation,  want 
of  skill,  and  other  circumstances,  to  supply  the  de- 
mand which  must  immediately  spring  up,  some- 
where or  other,  for  labour  of  another  kind,  to  be 
employed  in  the  improved  method.  The  pressure 
of  such  changes  (like  those  we  have  traced  to 
changes  in  fashion  and  demand)  is  often  very  se- 
vere and  enduring ;  as  in  the  instance  of  the  un- 
fortunate hand-loom  weavers,  who  have,  for  twenty 
years  past,  in  Great  Britain,  been  engaged  in  a 
hard  but  unavailing  competition  with  the  improve- 
ments of  the  power-loom.  And  these  sufferings 
ought  undoubtedly  to  be  mitigated  at  the  expense 
of  society  by  direct  relief,  but  still  more  by  the 
adoption  of  means  for  raising  the  standard  of  edu- 
cation among  the  labouring  population,  and  also 
for  facilitating  the  transition  of  labourers  from  one 
branch  of  employment  or  one  locality  in  which 
they  are  no  longer  wanted,  to  other  employments 
or  places  in  which  the  demand  of  labour  is  brisker. 
Any  interference  with  improvements  from  which 
society  at  large  profits  so  greatly,  for  the  sake  of 
protecting  those  whose  employments  are  about  to 
be  superseded,  is  obviously  indefensible. 

Interference  has  often  been  asked  for  by  the  suf- 
ferers in  these  cases  and  their  advocates.  But 
such  a  principle,  once  admitted,  it  is  evident,  would 
tend  directly  to  stop  all  improvement;  it  would 


172  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

have  necessitated  the  prohibition  of  printing  for 
the  protection  of  manuscript  copyists  ;  of  steam, 
boats  for  the  protection  of  sailmakers  ;  and  of 
bridges  for  the  protection  of  ferrymen  ;  it  would 
go  to  prevent  the  employment  of  every  contrivance 
by  which  human  labour  is  aided  in  any  branch  of 
industry,  and  reduce  us,  as  was  well  observed  by 
a  Glasgow  operative  before  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  to  the  teeth  and  nails  as  the 
sole  instruments  of  production.  The  sure  result 
of  every  improvement  in  machinery  is  an  increased 
production  of  the  means  of  enjoyment.  Whatever 
partial  evils  attend  that  beneficial  result,  may  and 
ought  to  be  mitigated  by  other  means  than  by  pla- 
cing obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  march  of  improve- 
ment. ! 
Capital  which  consists  in  tools  or  machinery  is 
more  or  less  durable,  and  will  usually  aid  in  the 
successive  production  of  a  large  quantity  of  com- 
modities before  it  is  wholly  consumed.  The  por- 
tion of  such  capital  that  is  consumed  in  production 
enters  as  an  element  into  cost,  together  with  the 
current  rate  of  profit  upon  it  for  the  time  during 
which  it  has  been  advanced.  Thus  the  cost  of 
one  hundred  quarters  of  corn  to  the  grower  in- 
cludes, besides  his  labourers'  wages  and  his  own, 
the  value  of  that  portion  of  his  stock  (viz.,  seed- 
corn,  ploughs,  harrows,  and  other  implements, 
horses,  horse-provender,  manure,  &c.)  which  has 
been  consumed  in  raising  his  crop,  together  with 
the  current  profit  on  the  value  of  every  several 
portion  of  this  capital  for  the  time  during  which  it 
has  been  employed  in  the  production  of  his  corn. 
Hence,  improvements  which  save  any  part  of  the 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  173 

time  necessarily  consumed  in  the  business  of  pro- 
duction, effect  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of  the  pro- 
duce, by  lessening  the  amount  of  profit  chargeable 
on  the  capital  employed,  as  well  as  the  amount  of 
wages  chargeable  for  the  labour  of  those  who  as- 
sist  in,  or  superintend  the  work.  The  improve, 
ments  we  have  just  noticed  in  communications  of 
every  kind,  and,  above  all,  the  extraordinary  ac- 
celeration which  has  taken  place  of  late  years  in 
the  conveyance  of  both  public  and  private  intelli- 
gence throughout  this  and  other  countries,  have 
contributed,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  to  diminish 
the  producing  costs  of  many  objects,  by  enabling 
their  producers  to  save  much  of  the  time  which 
was  formerly  wasted  in  the  intervals  between  the 
different  stages  of  the  process  of  production,  as 
well  as  between  its  completion  and  final  sale.  If 
a  manufacturer  is  able,  through  such  circum- 
stances, to  turn  his  capital  twice  in  the  year  where 
formerly  he  could  have  turned  it  but  once,  that 
portion  of  the  producing  cost  of  his  article  which 
consists  of  the  profit  on  the  capital  employed,  and 
of  the  wages  of  himself,  and  perhaps  several  of  his 
assistant  labourers,  his  clerks,  &c.,  will  be  but  half 
what  it  was  at  the  former  period. 

2.  When  the  entire  supply  of  a  commodity,  or 
of  any  of  the  elements  necessary  to  the  production 
of  a  commodity,  is  produced  under  a  monopoly, 
the  extraordinary  charges  which  the  owner  of  the 
monopoly  is  thereby  enabled  to  make,  go  to  swell 
the  amount  of  its  cost.  Thus  the  proprietor  of  a 
patent  or  secret  process,  by  which  a  particular  ar- 
ticle is  exclusively  produced,  has  it  in  his  power  to 
charge  for  his  article,  beyond  the  amount  of  the 
P  2 


174  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

ordinary  wages  and  profits  on  the  labour  and  cap- 
ital  consumed  in  its  production,  a  sum  sufficient  to 
defray  the  cost  of  invention.  So  the  owner  of  a 
vineyard,  which  exclusively  produces  fruit  of  a  pe- 
culiarly fine  quality,  is  enabled  to  raise  the  price 
of  its  produce  to  those  who  buy  of  him  far  beyond 
the  ordinary  remuneration  for  the  capital  and  la- 
bour expended  upon  it.  And  these  extraordinary 
charges  enter  into  the  producing  cost  of  the  article, 
because  their  payment  is  the  necessary  condition  of 
its  production  for  sale.  Unless  their  terms  are 
agreed  to,  the  monopolists  may  decline  to  produce 
or  sell  the  article  at  all.  This  remark  applies,  of 
course,  to  all  commodities  which,  i^  any  stage  of 
their  production,  or  in  any  one  of  their  necessary 
elements,  are  subject  to  similar  charges  for  exclu- 
sive powers  or  privileges.  But  it  must  be  observed, 
that  the  payment  of  all  such  monopoly  charges  is 
wholly  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  consumer,  who 
has  no  right  to  complain  of  its  exaction  so  long  as 
he  is  left  free  to  purchase  or  procure  the  article  in 
any  cheaper  manner,  if  he  can. 

When,  however,  only  a  portion  of  the  entire  sup- 
ply is  produced  under  a  monopoly,  the  necessary 
cost  of  the  article  is  not  affected  by  such  monopoly, 
but  consists  solely  of  the  labour,  time,  and  capital 
required  to  produce  that  portion  of  the  supply  which 
is  brought  to  market  under  the  least  favourable 
circumstances  to  its  producers,  and,  consequently, 
under  no  monopoly.  Though  the  parties  concern- 
ed in  the  production  of  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
supply  receive  a  monopoly  profit,  they  do  not  there- 
by raise  the  price  of  their  article.  It  is  out  of  their 
power,  by  refusing  to  produce  or  by  any  other 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  175 

means,  to  raise  the  price  one  jot  beyond  that  at 
which  the  commodity  can  be  supplied  by  other  par- 
ties who  will  be  content  to  get  the  current  profit  on 
capital  and  wages  of  labour.  The  proprietor  of  a 
peculiarly  rich  or  well-situated  coal-mine,  for  ex- 
ample,  obtains  a  monopoly  profit  upon  his  produce, 
consisting  of  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing the  article  from  his  mine,  and  the  cost  of 
the  same  article  from  the  poorest  or  worst  situated 
mine  of  all  by  which  the  market  is  habitually  sup- 
plied. But  the  price  of  the  entire  supply  of  coal 
is  determined  by  the  cost  of  this  latter  portion,  and 
is  therefore  in  no  degree  raised  by  the  superior  ad- 
vantages enjoyed  by  the  owner  of  the  best  mines. 
The  same  law,  as  we  have  already  seen,  applies  to 
all  raw  produce  derived  from  land  ;  the  cost  of 
which  is  in  no  degree  affected  by  the  rent  of  the 
best  lands,  but  is  determined  by  the  labour,  capital, 
and  time  required  for  its  production  from  the  least 
favourably  situated  lands  of  all  that  habitually  sup- 
ply the  same  market. 

3.  It  is  obvious  that  the  amount  of  taxation  to 
which  a  commodity  is  liable,  in  itself  or  in  any  of  its 
component  elements,  must  add  just  so  much  to  the 
cost  of  producing  it  for  sale  in  the  market,  together 
with  the  current  rate  of  profit  on  the  sums  so  paid 
for  the  time  during  which  they  have  been  advanced. 
A  diminution  of  the  customs'  duties  on  foreign  prod- 
uce,* or  of  the  taxes  levied  on  articles  of  home 

*  Such  has  not  been  the  case  in  the  United  States.  It  has 
been  often  remarked,  that  the  repeal  of  a  duty  on  foreign  goods 
is  followed  here,  not  by  a/aZ/,  but  by  a  rise  in  price.  Two  rea- 
sons for  this  will  readily  occur  to  the  reader  :  1st.  The  duty  has 
the  effect  of  inducing  a  greater  number  of  capitalists  to  engage 
in  the  production  of  the  article,  the  competition  between  whom 


176  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

growth  or  manufacture,  or  on  any  of  the  materials 
employed  in  their  production,  has  the  effect  of  di- 
minishing their  cost  to  the  producer.  So  also  the 
breaking  out  of  a  war,  by  increasing  the  premium 
on  marine  ensurances,  adds  to  the  producing  cost 
of  all  imported  goods.* 

keeps  the  price  down.  When  the  duty  is  repealed,  many  of 
these  withdraw.  2dly.  It  is  part  of  the  policy  of  British  manu- 
facturers to  glut  American  markets  with  such  articles  as  we  are 
endeavouring,  by  the  aid  of  duties,  to  produce.  This  they  are 
enabled  to  do  by  manufacturing  a  surplus  of  goods  beyond  their 
orders;  and  this  surplus  being  produced  at  little  comparative 
cost,  it  is  thought  to  be  good  policy  to  throw  it  into  foreign 
markets,  where  they  are  trying  to  build  up  domestic  manufac- 
tures, and  to  sell  it  so  low  that  the  native  goods  will  be  driven 
out.  When  a  duty  is  repealed,  the  motive  to  this  course  ceases, 
the  supply  is  diminished,  and  the  goods  rise,  till  they  pay  both 
the  costs  of  production  and  a  good  profit  to  the  foreign  manu- 
facturer.—  Ed. 

*  The  majority  of  political  economists,  in  pursuance  of  the 
fallacy  already  exposed  of  identifying  value  with  labour,  resolve 
cost  of  production  into  the  quantity  of  labour  only  required  for 
producing  the  article.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  more  in 
refutation  of  so  palpable  an  error.  Land  and  capital  must  unite 
with  labour  in  the  production  of  everything,  and  the  owners  of 
land  and  capital,  no  less  than  the  owners  of  labour,  have  the 
power  of  demanding,  and  are  in  the  habit  of  receiving,  a  share  of 
the  value  of  every  commodity  in  return  for  what  they  contrib- 
ute towards  its  production.  And  even  though  we  should  ex- 
clude from  consideration  all  monopoly  charges,  and  view  the 
value  of  land  and  capital  as  the  result  merely  of  anterior  labour, 
yet  it  would  be  in  the  highest  degree  irrational  to  refuse  to  dis- 
tinguish the  labour  that  enclosed  and  cleared  a  field,  planted  an 
oak,  or  raised  a  building  centuries  ago,  or  that  which  built  a 
ship,  or  framed  a  machine  several  years  back,  from  the  labour 
which  is  employed  at  the  present  time  in  using  the  land,  build- 
ing, timber,  vessel,  or  machine,  in  the  preparation  of  something 
for  immediate  sale.  Nor  even,  though  we  admitted  all  land  and 
capital  to  owe  their  value  to  labour,  would  this  suffice  to  resolve 
cost  ultimately  into  labour.  For  it  will  not  be  denied  that  profit 
is  a  constant  element  in  cost.  And  this,  as  we  have  proved,  is  » 
a  compensation  not  for  labour,  but  for  the  time  during  which  the 
owner  of  capital  has  allowed  it  to  be  employed  productively  with 
a  view  to  ultimate  remuneration,  instead  of  consuming  it  imme- 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  177 

It  is  quite  evident,  that  the  cost  of  producing  any 
article  must,  in  the  long  run,  determine  its  price  (or 
selling  value).  For,  unless  a  price  can  be  obtained 
sufficient  to  cover  this  cost,  no  one  will  continue  to 
produce  it  for  sale. 

A  sudden  increase  of  demand,  or  a  casual  defi- 
ciency of  supply,  will  frequently  raise  prices  above 
this  level ;  as  a  diminished  demand,  or  an  acci- 
dental increase  of  the  supply  beyond  the  demand, 
will  lower  them  beneath  it.  Such  effect  is,  how. 
ever,  but  temporary.  The  constant  tendency  both 
of  demand  and  supply  is  to  come  to  an  equilibrium, 
and  the  point  about  which  they  oscillate  is  that  sell- 
ing  price  of  the  commodity  which  will  just  cover 
the  cost  of  its  production  at  any  particular  time 
and  place. 

Should  the  price  fall  below  this  level,  producers 
find  that  particular  branch  of  industry  a  less  ad- 
vantgeous  mode  of  employing  their  capital  and  la- 
bour  than  others,  and  some  are  therefore  led  to  dis- 
continue it ;  or  those  who  were  on  the  point  of  em- 
barking in  it  are  led  to  prefer  another  occupation. 
The  supply  is  thus  generally  diminished,  until  it 
is  brought  down  at  least  to  the  level  of  that  extent 
of  demand  which  will  pay  the  producing  cost. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  supply  is  deficient 
as  compared  to  the  demand,  the  price  rising  in 
consequence  above  the  cost  of  production,  produ- 
cers are  encouraged,  by  an  increase  of  profits,  to 
enlarge  their  business,  and  invest  additional  capi- 

diately  on  his  personal  gratification.  It  is  also  clear,  as  has 
been  shown  above,  that  monopoly  charges,  as  well  as  taxation, 
wherever  they  exist,  are  included  in  costs  of  production,  togeth- 
er with  the  ordinary  elements. 


178  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

tal  and  labour  in  that  particular  trade,  until  the  in- 
creased supply  meets  the  demand,  and  brings  down 
the  price  to  the  level  of  the  producing  cost. 

These  oscillations  of  price  about  the  mean  level 
of  the  costs  of  production  are  continually  taking 
place ;  the  circumstances  which  influence  supply 
and  demand  being  of  so  complicated  a  character, 
that  the  one  can  never,  for  a  length  of  time,  remain 
exactly  adjusted  to  the  other.  The  producers  can 
never  anticipate  with  precision  the  extent  of  the 
demand,  and  will  therefore  usually  be  something 
within  or  beyond  it.  Moreover,  as  we  have  seen, 
supply  and  demand  act  and  react  on  each  other. 
An  increased  supply,  by  lowering  price,  not  only 
tempts  those  that  employed  the  article  previously 
to  enlarge  their  consumption,  but  likewise  brings 
it  within  reach  of  a  wider  circle  of  consumers, 
who  acquire  a  taste  for  it,  which  usually  continues 
even  when  the  price  has  again  risen.  Hence  a 

Eermanent  increase  of  demand  is  generally  estab- 
shed  by  a  temporary  fall  of  price.     An  increased 
demand,  by  augmenting  profits,  attracts  fresh  spec- 
ulators into  the  business,  and,  in  turn,  raises  the 
supply. 

The  competition  of  individual  producers  is  in  this 
way  constantly  tending  to  equalize  the  supply  and 
demand.  Each  acting  in  his  own  sphere,  and  ac- 
tuated by  the  instinct  of  self-interest,  endeavours  to 
produce  as  much  as  he  can  sell  with  a  fair  profit, 
and  yet  to  produce  no  more  than  he  can  so  dis- 
pose of:  each  and  all  endeavour,  for  their  several 
interests,  to  keep  the  supply  full,  but  to  prevent  ex- 
cess. 
Competition  is,  indeed,  the  soul  of  industry,  the 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  179 

animating  spirit  of  production,  the  ever-present, 
all-pervading  elastic  principle,  which,  like  the  pow- 
er of  gravitation  on  the  atmosphere  and  ocean,  fills 
every  vacuum  in  the  market  of  exchanges,  equal- 
izes the  quantity  for  every  commodity  to  the  ne- 
cessity for  it,  and  preserves  their  relative  values 
at  the  mean  level  of  their  comparative  estimation 
in  the  regard  of  the  great  body  of  consumers.  Ev- 
ery one  who  sees  his  neighbour  getting  an  advan- 
tage which  lies  open  to  himself — a  higher  profit  or 
a  larger  wage — anxious  to  share  in  the  benefit, 
starts  as  his  rival,  if  it  be  possible  for  him  to  do 
so  ;  and  the  number  of  competitors  who  thus  throw 
themselves  into  any  peculiarly  advantageous  busi- 
ness, must  speedily  reduce  its  profits  to  the  gen- 
eral  level,  and  its  prices  to  the  necessary  costs  of 
production. 

Monopoly  and  competition  are  antagonist  prin- 
ciples, working  constantly  against  each  other,  but 
in  such  a  way  as  to  benefit  society  by  the  result 
of  their  joint  forces.  The  object  of  the  monopo- 
list is  to  control  the  supply,  either  permanently  or 
for  a  time,  in  order  to  raise  the  price.  The  strug- 
gle of  competitors  to  share  the  advantages  of  the 
monopolist  tends  to  increase  the  supply,  and  there- 
fore lowers  the  price.  The  first  principle  befriends 
the  public  by  holding  out  high  encouragement  to 
invention,  skill,  and  improvement ;  the  other,  by 
reducing  the  price  the  public  have  to  pay  for  such 
improvements  to  the  lowest  point  consistent  with 
their  sufficient  encouragement. 

The  mode  in  which  the  principles  we  have  been 
analyzing  determine  the  direction  and  extent  of 


180  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

productive  operations,  will  be  seen,  perhaps,  with 
greater  clearness,  if  we  examine  briefly  some  of 
the  simplest  habitual  modes  of  employing  capital 
and  labour. 

Suppose  A.  to  possess  property  to  the  value  of  a 
thousand  pounds. 

1.  If  he  realize,  that  is,  sell  it  for  a  thousand 
pounds  in  money,  it  is  then  in  that  form  which 
combines,  perhaps,  the  greatest  security  and  con- 
venience, as  enabling  him  to  make  whatever  use 
he  pleases  of  it ;  to  remove  with  it  to  any  part  of 
the  world  ;  to  expend  it  on  his  own  gratification ; 
or  to  employ  it  in  any  productive  investment  which 
offers  at  the  moment  the  highest  advantages.     But, 
so  long  as  he  retains  it  in  the  shape  of  money  in 
his  pocket  or  his  chest,  it  is  of  no  other  advan- 
tage to  him  than  what  he  may  derive  from  a  feel- 
ing of  its  security,  and  of  his  power  of  command, 
ing,  through  its  means,  anything  in  the  market  up 
to  that  value.     If  he  wish  to  make  a  profit  of  his 
money,  as  a  source  of  revenue,  he  must  change  its 
mode  of  investment. 

2.  He  may,  for  example,  lend  it  to  some  one  who 
is  in  want  of  money,  on  securities  of  a  private  na- 
ture, such  as  bills,  bonds,  mortgages  of  land  or 
buildings,  &c.,  or  of  a  public  nature,  as  govern- 
ment stock,  canal  and  railroad  shares,  &c.     The 
latter  class  of  securities  are  readily  available ;  that 
is  to  say,  the  owner  may  realize,  or  tifhi  them  again 
into  money  whenever  he  chooses  ;  but  they  fluctu- 
ate in  value,  and  may  sell,  therefore,  for  more  or  less 
than  was  given  for  them.     All  bear  the  current  in- 
terest on  money,  with  a  difference  determined  chief- 
ly by  the  more  or  less  of  risk  attached  to  each,  and 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  181 

tile  more  or  less  of  trouble  and  expense  attending 
their  transfer. 

These  moneyed  investments  are  all  mere  debts,  or 
claims  representing  money  expended  (often  unpro* 
ductively),  but  for  which  some  productive  property 
stands  pledged.  They  may,  therefore,  be  consid- 
ered as  part-ownerships  in  the  property  so  bur- 
dened.  Some,  as  mortgages  and  government  stock, 
have  a  claim  for  a  definite  return  which  is  prior  to 
that  of  all  other  owners.  Some,  as  canal  and  com- 
pany shares  and  bank  stock,  are  subject  to  similar 
fluctuations  in  Value  as  the  capital  embarked  in 
private  concerns. 

Property  of  this  kind,  consisting  in  money  obli* 
gations,  is  clearly  quite  distinct  from  capital,  though 
it  is  frequently  confounded  with  it  in  common  con- 
versation. It  brings  interest  to  the  owner,  but  is 
not  productive  as  regards  the  community  generally* 
It  merely  represents  the  claim  of  one  party  to  a 
portion  of  the  returns  of  the  land,  capital,  or  labour 
of  some  others.  If  these  claims  were  reckoned  in 
a  calculation  of  the  national  capital,  they  would  be 
counted  twice  over ;  once  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  pay  the  interest  of  the  debt  with  which  their 
capital  is  burdened,  and  again  in  the  hands  of  the 
creditor  who  receives  that  interest.  The  national 
debt  of  England,  for  example,  is  not  capital,  but 
rather  the  reverse.  It  is  a  burden  upon  the  capi* 
tal  and  industry  of  the  nation,  which  are  pledged 
for  its  payment.  If  that  debt  and  all  other  money 
securities  were  abolished  to-morrow,  there  would 
be  neither  more  nor  less  capital  in  the  country  than 
before.  But  the  profits  of  capital  and  the  wages  of 
labour  would  be  raised  by  the  annihilation  of  a  claim 

a 


182  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

upon  the  aggregate  produce  which  is  prior  to  that 
of  the  producers  themselves.  At  the  same  time, 
the  injustice  of  such  a  "  sponging"  process  is  man- 
ifest.  The  creditors  have  given,  and  the  debtors 
have  received,  expended,  and  profited  from  what 
both  parties  considered  an  equivalent  to  the  claim* 
The  former  may  be  looked  upon  as  "  sleeping  part- 
ners"  in  the  business,  which  the  latter  are  enabled 
to  carry  on  by  means  of  the  advances  of  capital  or 
other  necessary  aid  which  have  been  made  to  them. 
And  the  right,  therefore,  of  the  national  (or  any 
other)  creditor  to  his  stipulated  share  of  the  na- 
tional produce  is  as  strong,  and  rests  on  the  same 
grounds  of  equity,  as  that  of  the  land-owner,  the 
capitalist,  and  the  labourer  to  their  stipulated  por- 
tions of  whatever  they  have  voluntarily  combined 
to  produce. 

3.  But,  instead  of  moneyed  securities,  A.  may 
prefer  to  invest  his  thousand  pounds  in  some  prod- 
uctive  business ;  in  supplying,  or  aiding  the  sup. 
ply  of  some  market  with  goods.  He  may  do  this 
as  a  "  sleeping  partner  ;"  in  which  case  he  will  ex- 
pect  only  to  make  a  profit  on  his  capital  little  greater 
than  the  current  interest  of  money,  after  allowing 
for  all  the  risks  to  which  the  business  in  which  it 
is  embarked  is  exposed.  Or  he  may  engage  per- 
sonally  in  the  business  ;  in  which  case,  besides  this 
profit  on  his  capital,  he  will  expect  to  gain  a  re- 
muneration for  his  labour.  Perhaps  he  will  spec- 
ulate, as  it  is  called,  in  goods — buying  one  day, 
when  he  considers  the  prices  low  and  likely  to  rise, 
to  sell  again  after  an  interval— or,  as  a  wholesale 
dealer,  he  will  purchase  of  the  grower,  or  manu- 
facturer, or  importer  of  an  article,  and  sell  to  the 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  183 

retail  dealers — or,  as  a  retail  dealer  purchasing  of 
the  wholesale  dealer,  he  will  sell  to  the  consumers 
in  such  quantities  as  are  required  for  immediate 
use.  In  every  case  he  acts  with  a  view  to  profit, 
by  selling  for  more  money  than  he  gives  ;  and  this 
profit  must,  on  the  average,  be  sufficient  to  pay 
him  interest  on  his  capital  during  the  time  it  is 
employed ;  to  repay,  moreover,  his  personal  trouble 
and  skill,  as  well  as  all  expenses  incurred  between 
the  purchase  and  sale,  as  carriage,  shop  and  ware- 
house rent,  taxes,  &e.  ;  and  likewise  to  cover  the 
risk  which  he  takes  upon  himself  of  damage  to  his 
goods  while  they  remain  with  him,  and  of  a  fall  in 
the  market-prices.  It  is  evident  that,  to  cover  all 
these  items,  a  very  considerable  per  centage  of 
gross  annual  profit  on  his  capital  must  usually  be 
necessary.  In  such  engagements,  however,  the 
capital  is  seldom  long  in  being  realized,  or  turned 
again  into  money.  Most  capitalists  of  this  class, 
which  comprehends  all  merchants,  wholesale  deal- 
ers,  and  shopkeepers,  turn  their  capitals  more  than 
once,  often  several  times,  in  the  year.  So  that,  as 
already  remarked,  a  small  profit  on  the  price  of 
each  article  sold  may  afford  a  very  large  annual 
profit  on  the  capital  employed. 

4.  Perhaps  it  may  suit  the  views  of  A.  to  expend 
his  capital  in  the  acquisition  of  the  skill  and  knowl- 
edge, or  ability,  requisite  for  some  professional  bu- 
siness ;  in  studying  the  law,  for  instance,  or  medi- 
cine, or  surgery,  or  divinity,  or  commerce,  and  fit- 
ting himself  for  the  practice  of  one  of  these  pro- 
fessions. These  are  modes  of  investing  capital 
subject  to  much  risk,  not  the  least  of  which  is  that 
of  4eath  or  sickness,  by  which  the  value  of  the  ac- 


184  POLITIC AJ,   ECONOMY. 

quired  ability  may  be  annihilated  at  once.  But  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  blanks  is  the  greatness 
of  the  prizes,  so  that  there  is  never  any  want  of 
competition  in  such  occupations.  Capital  so  ex. 
pended  in  the  acquisition  of  personal  qualifications 
or  advantages,  loses  its  name,  and  assumes  that  of 
ability.  Its  returns  can  no  longer  be  properly 
called  profit,  but  wages,  salary,  or  professional 
gains. 

5.  Or  A.  may  prefer  to  invest  his  thousand 
pounds  in  the  purchase  of  land.     This  is  geneiv 
ally  reckoned  the  most  permanent  and  secure  of 
all  investments,  as  being  less  exposed  to  loss  by 
commercial  or  political  convulsions;  and  it  con, 
sequently  returns,  on  the  average,  a  less  interest 
than  any  other.     But  it  has  its  disadvantages,  par- 
ticularly  in  the  difficulty  of  finding  a  purchaser  for 
land  at  any  time  when  its  owner  wishes  to  sell, 
owing  to  the  variety  of  tastes  respecting  situation, 
residence,  &c. 

When  A.  has  purchased  land,  he  may  either  let 
it  to  those  who  will  pay  him,  in  the  shape  of  rent, 
the  interest  on  the  capital  he  has  so  invested  ;  or 
he  may  cultivate  it  himself,  for  which  purpose  he 
will  require  an  additional  capital. 

6.  Let  us  suppose  that,  instead  of  purchasing, 
he  employs  his  capital  in  cultivating,  or,  as  it  is 
called,  "  hiring"  land.     For  this  he  must  lay  out 
a  part  in  the  purchase  of  tools  and  implements  of 
husbandry,  called  dead  stock ;  part  in  cattle,  sheep, 
pigs,  horses,  &c.,  or  live  ptock ;  and  part  he  will 
keep  by  him  in  the  shape  of  money,  with  which  to 
pay  the  wages  of  his  labourers  and  other  current 
expenses.    He  now  looks  for  his  profit  and  per- 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  185 

sonal  remuneration  to  the  surplus  of  the  sum  for 
which  he  sells  the  annual  produce  of  his  farm,  be- 
yond what  is  necessary  to  pay  his  rent,  and  main- 
tain  his  capital  at  its  full  former  value ;  in  other 
words,  to  compensate  for  the  wear  and  tear  of  his 
dead,  and  to  replace  his  live  stock,  and,  moreover, 
to  cover  his  average  risk  of  loss  from  casualties, 
bad  seasons,  &c.  His  rent  will  be  a  matter  of 
agreement  between  himself  and  the  landlord  be- 
fore he  enters  on  his  occupation.  But  he  will  not 
be  likely  to  agree  to  pay  more  than  what  will,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  calculation  he  can  make  at  the 
time  of  the  probable  produce  of  the  farm,  leave 
him  a  decent  maintenance  in  return  for  his  own 
exertions,  and  a  net  profit  on  his  capital  equal  to 
the  ordinary  rate  which  he  could  have  obtained  in 
other  lines  of  business  or  moneyed  investments. 
Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  owner  of  the  farm 
likely  to  let  it  for  less  than  such  a  rent,  which  it  is 
evident  he  could  make  for  himself  by  cultivating  it 
on  his  own  account,  either  personally  or  through 
an  honest  agent.  For  these  reasons,  the  average 
rent  of  land  equals,  and  may  be  said  to  consist  of, 
that  surplus  of  its  average  annual  produce  which 
remains  after  replacing  the  capital  required  to  cul- 
tivate it,  and  paying  the  current  profit  upon  that 
capital,  and  the  current  remuneration  of  farming 
labour. 

If  A.  rent  his  farm  at  the  will  of  his  landlord, 
i.  e.,. from  year  to  year,  he  will  usually  take  .care 
to  expend  no  more  upon  his  land  every  year  than 
what  he  can  get  off  it  within  the  year.  But  if  he 
rent  on  a  lease  for  a  term  of  years,  or  occupy  his 
own  land— or,  in  some  rare  cases  of  confidence  in 
Q2 


186  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

his  landlord,  even  when  occupying  as  tenant 
only — he  will  probably  lay  out  some  of  his  capital 
in  durable  improvements  of  his  farm  ;  for  example, 
in  draining  wet  lands,  clearing  fresh  soil,  adding  to 
the  farm-buildings,  or  in  such  a  system  of  manu- 
ring and  cultivation  as  can  only  be  expected  to  re- 
pay  the  outlay  within  a  period  of  some  years. 

That  part  of  his  capital  which  he  expends  in  this 
manner  is  fixecj  to  the  soil,  and  cannot,  like  his 
moveable  stock,  live  and  dead,  be  realized  by  sale. 
He  can  only  expect  to  get  it  back  by  degrees, 
in  the  form  of  an  increased  annual  produce  from 
his  farm ;  which  increase,  if  the  improvement  be 
of  a  permanent  nature,  assumes  thenceforward  the 
character  of  rent,  and,  upon  the  termination  of  the 
lease,  accrues  to  the  landlord  in  an  increase  of  his 
rent.  If  the  improvement  is  fitted  only  to  last  a 
certain  term  of  years,  as  the  lime-manuring  of 
land,  temporary  farm-buildings,  and  improved  ro- 
tations of  crops,  the  increased  return  must  be  suf- 
ficient to  replace  the  capital  expended  at  the  end 
of  the  term,  and  pay  the  usual  profit,  or  the  farmer 
will  not  be  induced  to  lay  out  his  capital  in  effect- 
ing it.  Capital  expended  in  the  latter  way  is  pre- 
cisely  on  the  footing  of  that  laid  out  in  perishable 
implements  or  dead  stock,  except  in  the  circum- 
stance of  its  not  being  removeable.  And  a  hun- 
dred pounds  laid  out  in  implements  which  may  be 
expected  to  last  ten  years,  ought  to  bring  in  the 
same  gross  return  as  a  hundred  pounds  laid  out  in 
manuring  a  field  in  a  mode  of  which  the  effect  may 
be  expected  to  last  the  same  time. 

It  is  clear  that  lasting  improvements  on  land 
cannot  be  expected  from  farmers  who  have  no 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  187 

leases  ;  and  hence,  where  tenancy  at  will  prevails, 
as  it  does  at  present  over  the  greater  part  of  Eng- 
land, the  repairs,  as  well  as  all  permanent  improve, 
ments,  have  to  be  undertaken  by  the  landlord,  if  at 
all.  It  is  more  than  doubtful  whether,  under  such 
a  system,  the  land  is  cultivated  so  well,  or  render- 
ed so  productive,  as  under  a  system  of  leases.  But 
the  uncertain  prices  of  late  years  have  naturally 
indisposed  landlords  to  put  their  land  out  of  their 
own  disposal  for  a  long  term;  during  which,  if 
prices  rise,  the  tenant  reaps  the  entire  benefit ; 
whereas,  if  they  fall,  the  landlord  finds  himself 
obliged  to  remit  the  stipulated  rent,  lest  his  tenant 
ruin  his  farm  by  a  deficiency  of  capital  for  its 
proper  cultivation.  Hence  leases,  in  times  of  great 
fluctuation  in  the  prices  of  agricultural  produce, 
are  a  protection  to  the  tenant,  but  not  to  the  land- 
lord. 

7.  Should  A.  prefer  the  business  of  a  manufac* 
turer,  he,  perhaps,  lays  out  a  part  of  his  capital  in 
buildings  and  machinery,  fixed,  more  or  less,  to 
the  soil,  like  some  of  those  in  the  case  last  con- 
sidered.  Another  part  of  his  capital  is  employed 
in  the  occasional  purchase  of  raw  material,  tools, 
dec.,  and  another  in  the  frequent  payment  of  the 
wages  of  his  workmen.  Or  he  may  rent  the  build- 
ings, machinery,  &c.,  and  employ  his  whole  capi- 
tal in  the  latter  forms.  His  returns  must  in  this 
case,  as  in  that  of  the  farmer,  be  sufficient,  besides 
recompensing  his  own  trouble  and  skill,  to  replace 
his  floating  capital — that,  namely  (as  already  ex- 
plained), which  circulates  within  the  year — with 
the  ordinary  rate  of  profit ;  to  replace  his  fixed 
or  more  durable  capital  at  the  end  of  the  term 


188  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

which  it  is  calculated  to  last,  with  the  same  profit ; 
and,  moreover,  to  cover  all  the  risks  peculiar  to  the 
business,  such  as  that  of  the  article  he  fabricates 
being  superseded  by  a  change  in  the  taste,  and, 
consequently,  in  the  demand  of  the  public,  or  the 
machinery  he  employs  by  a  new  and  superior  in- 
vention.  The  risks  of  these  kinds  attached  to 
manufacturing  operations  are  (for  reasons  we 
have,  in  part,  already  given)  much  greater  than  in 
agriculture  ;  and  hence  the  compensation  or  ensu- 
rance  against  such  risks  must  be  proportionately 
large.  It  has  not  been  -uncommon,  of  late,  for 
buildings  and  machinery,  on  which  thousands  of 
pounds  had  been  expended,  to  fall  in  value  in  a 
very  brief  period,  through  changes  in  the  demand 
of  the  market,  the  introduction  of  improved  ma- 
chinery,*  or  a  general  depression  of  trade,  to  lit- 
tle or  nothing.  In  times  of  depression,  indeed 
(such  as  we  have  seen  but  too  often),  it  is  not  un- 
common for  manufacturers,  rather  than  shut  up 
their  factories  or  works  (which  would,  in  that  state, 
rapidly  go  to -decay),  to  renounce  the  idea  of  get 
ting  any  return  from  their  fixed  capital,  and  to 

*  "  Machinery  for  producing  any  commodity  in  great  demand 
seldom  wears  out ;  new  improvements,  by  which  the  same  op- 
erations can  be  executed  either  more  quickly  or  better,  gener- 
.ally  superseding  it  long  before  that  period  arrives  :  indeed,  to 
make  such  an  improved  machine  profitable,  it  is  usually  reck- 
oned that  in  five  years  it  ought  to  have  paid  itself,  and  iri  ten  to 
'be  superseded  by  a  better."  "  The  improvement  which  took 
place  not  long  ago  in  frames  for  -making  patent  net  was  so  great, 
that  a  machine  in  good  repair,  which  cost  1200Z.,  sold  a  few  years 
after  for  60/.  During  the  great  speculations  in  that  trade,  the 
improvements  succeeded  each  other  so  rapidly,  that  machines 
which  had  never  been  finished  were  abandoned  in  the  hands  of 
their  makers,  because  new  improvements  had  superseded  their 
utility."— Babbage,  Economy  of  Manufactures,  p.  233. 


POITICAL  ECONOMY.  189 

work  on,  even  under  a  loss  upon  their  floating 
capital,  in  hopes  of  better  times. 

8.  Persons  who  embark  their  capital  in  working 
mines,  in  building  houses  or  ships,  and  in  a  variety 
of  other  productive  investments,  are  circumstanced, 
in  all  essential  points,  like  the  farmer  or  manufac- 
turer just  described.  A  part  of  this  capital  is  fixed 
in  more  or  less  durable  objects,  and  ought  to  bring 
in  a  sufficient  annual  return  to  replace  the  wear 
and  tear,  and  maintain  the  value  of  the  capital ; 
part  is  floating,  or  circulating  within  the  year,  in 
the  purchase  of  materials  and  stocks  of  goods,  and 
the  payment  of  wages,  taxes,  rent,  &c. 

None  of  these  different  modes  of  employing  cap. 
ital,  it  is  quite  evident,  would  be  undertaken  if  they 
-did  not  hold  out  a  fair  expectation  of  such  returns 
as  would  pay  the  ordinary  rate  of  profit  upon  the 
whole  capital  employed  for  the  time  required  for 
its  circulation,  and  enable  its  owner  to  replace  it 
at  ihe  end  of  that  term,  as  well  as  remunerate  him 
for  his  skill  and  trouble,  according  to  the  standard 
of  remuneration  generally  expected  by  his  class. 
No  business  would  be  entered  upon  that  did  not 
fairly  promise  this.  And,  therefore,  for  a  market 
to  be  habitually  supplied  with  any  commodity,  the 
necessary  condition  is  that  it  sell,  on  an  average, 
for  a  sufficient  price  to  repay  these,  the  elementary 
costs  of  its  production. 

When  the  supply  of  any  goods  in  any  market  is 
in  excess  over  the  demand,  so  as  to  reduce  their 
selling  price  below  the  elementary  costs  of  produc- 
tion, there  is  said  to  be  a  glut  of  them.  This  glut 
may  be  partial,  as  when  confined  to  one  market  $ 


190  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

in  which  the  evil  soon  cures  itself  by  a  transfer  of 
the  goods  to  other  markets,  where  the  demand  is 
brisker.  Or  it  may  be  general  with  respect  to 
the  markets,  but  confined  to  a  single  article. 
This  likewise  is,  for  the  most  part,  speedily  cor- 
rected, by  a  portion  of  the  producers  transferring 
their  labour  and  capital  to  some  other  and  more 
profitable  occupation. 

But  can  there  be  a  general  and  simultaneous 
glut  in  all  the  markets  of  a  country,  not  of  one 
or  a  few  articles  only,  but  of  a  large  majority,  or 
the  great  mass  of  commodities  ?  This  is  a  ques- 
tion which  has  been  much  and  hotly  disputed  by 
political  economists.  That  goods  of  all  kinds  are 
frequently  sold  below  their  prime  cost,  is  but  too 
well  known  to  commercial  men.  Forced  sales, 
caused  by  the  bankruptcy  or  temporary  embar- 
rassment of  the  owners,  are  continually  occur- 
ring  ;  and  a  certain  proportion  of  goods  thus  con- 
stantly find  their  way  into  the  consumer's  hands  at 
less  than  cost  price.  In  times  of  general  embar- 
rassment and  of  a  scarcity  of  money  in  circulation 
(such  as  we  have  witnessed  almost  periodically 
for  some  years  past),  still  larger  quantities  of 
goods  continue  to  be  produced  and  sold  for  some 
time  at  a  continual  loss  to  their  producers.  This 
is  chiefly  owing  to  two  circumstances :  1st.  The 
impossibility  of  realizing  fixed  capital  at  such  times, 
so  that  those  who  have  a  large  proportion  of  their 
property  embarked  in  buildings,  machinery,  stock, 
or  implements,  must  continue  to  employ  it  in  pro- 
duction,  though  at  a  tremendous  loss,  rather  than 
let  their  fixed  capital  lay  wholly  idle,  and  their 
buildings,  machinery,  &c.,  go  to  decay  for  want 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  191 

of  use  and  repairs.  2d.  The  very  distress  caused 
by  a  want  of  remunerative  prices  in  some  trades 
tends  to  increase  their  production.  Workmen,  in 
consequence  of  the  fall  in  their  wages  by  the  piece, 
work  the  harder  in  order  to  obtain  a  higher  pay 
by  the  day.  And  capitalists  likewise,  in  their 
struggles  to  avoid  ruin,  try  to  make  up  for  dimin- 
ished profits  by  increased  sales.* 

All  this  increase  of  production,  by  adding  to  the 
glut,  tends  to  cause  a  yet  farther  fall  in  prices,  and 
to  occasion  farther  losses  to  the  producers.  But 
in  the  economical,  as  in  the  moral  and  physical 
worlds,  there  are  few  evils  that  do  not  sooner  or 
later  work  out  their  own  cure.  Even  in  the  ap- 
parently desperate  state  of  things  we  have  been 
describing,  there  are  elements  in  operation  of  a 
nature  to  bring  about  an  improvement.  The  ex- 
traordinary cheapness  of  goods  produced  in  in- 
creased quantities  at  a  continual  loss,  opens  their 
consumption  to  a  lower  and  more  numerous  class 
of  purchasers*  They  make  their  way  into  new 
markets,  and  are  employed  in  substitution  for  other 
goods,  or  for  purposes  to  which  they  had  not  previ- 
ously been  applied.  A  new  and  enlarged  demand 
thus  springs  up  ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  the  anxiety 

*  Mr.  T.  Attwood,  of  England,  in  his  Examination  before  the 
Committee  of  Secrecy  on  the  Bank  Charter  Question  in  1831, 
says,  "  Nothing  is  more  common  than  for  manufacturers  to  in- 
crease their  establishments  at  the  very  time  they  are  upon  the 
road  to  ruin.  In  the  iron  trade,  for  example,  if  they  have  two 
furnaces,  they  will  build  a  third,  because  the  loss  upon  the  two 
furnaces  is  10s.  a  ton,  but  upon  the  three  it  will  be  reduced  to  5s. 
a  ton.  Within  the  last  five  or  six  months,  when  the  iron  mas- 
ters and  manufacturers  generally  are  all  going  to  ruin,  and  in  a 
state  I  do  not  like  to  describe,  they  are,  many  of  them,  enlarging 
their  works,  not  to  partake  of  profit,  but  to  prolong  the  path  to 
ruin  by  diminishing  their  general  charges."— 5654-5. 


192  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

of  the  producers  to  diminish  their  expenses  forces 
them  to  task  their  ingenuity  to  the  utmost  in  the 
invention  of  new  machines  or  processes  by  which 
a  saving  of  cost  may  be  effected ;  so  that  it  often 
happens,  by  the  time  a  new  and  enlarged  demand 
has  been  established  through  the  sacrifice  of  large 
stocks  of  goods  at  losing  prices,  that  the  producers 
find  themselves  enabled  to  supply  this  demand  at 
these  same  prices  with  a  profit.  We  believe  the 
history  of  the  silk,  the  iron,  the  glove,  and  the  cot- 
ton  trade,  and  perhaps  of  many  more,  within  the 
last  few  years,  affords  decided  instances  of  an  ex- 
tended  beneficial  demand  having  been  thus  bought 
by  temporary  sacrifices. 

It  is,  however,  strongly  to  be  suspected  that  stieh 
epochs  of  general  embarrassment  and  distress 
among  the  productive  classes,  accompanied — in- 
deed,  brought  on — by  a  general  glut  or  apparent 
excess  of  the  stocks  of  all  goods  in  market — of 
which  excess  sad  experience  has,  of  late,  too  fre- 
quently attested  the  real  existence,  in  spite  of  what 
theory  may  urge  as  to  its  impossibility — it  is  to  be 
suspected,  we  say,  that  such  phenomena  are  anom- 
alies, occasioned,  not  by  the  simple  and  natural  laws 
of  production,  but  by  the  force  of  some  artificial  dis- 
turbing cause.  A  few  words  will  explain  our 
meaning  as  far  as  we  think  it  necessary  to  proceed 
in  the  development  of  this  important  principle  in 
this  place. 

We  have  hitherto  spoken  of  price  as  synonymous 
with  value.  But,  in  truth,  this  is  only  on  the  as- 
sumption,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  commercial  in- 
terchange,  that  money  is  a  true  measure  of  value. 
Unhappily,  this  assumption  is  far  from  well-found- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  193 

ed.  Money,  whether  of  intrinsic  value,  as  coin,  or 
the  representative  only  of  value,  as  bank-notes,  is, 
like  every  other  changeable  commodity,  liable  to 
vary  in  value  with  changes  in  the  relation  of  its  de- 
mand and  supply.  Gold  and  silver  money,  freely 
coined,  must  vary  in  local  value  with  every  altera- 
tion (and  they  are  very  frequent)  in  the  local  sup- 
ply and  demand  of  the  precious  metals.  Bank  pa- 
per, payable  on  demand  in  coin,  must  vary  precise- 
ly in  value  with  the  metal  into  which  it  is  by  law 
convertible  at  the  option  of  its  possessor.  Incon- 
vertible paper-money  will  vary  whenever  the  quan- 
tity in  circulation  is  either  beyond  or  within  the 
quantity  which  is  required  at  the  time  for  the  ex- 
igences  of  commerce  in  the  country  through  which 
the  paper  circulates.  And  as  these  exigences  are 
continually  fluctuating,  and  there  exists  no  test  by 
which  their  extent  can  be  at  any  time  gauged,  this 
kind  of  money  likewise  must  be  frequently  varying 
in  value. 

Bearing  in  mind  this  instability  of  value  inherent 
in  money  of  all  kinds,  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive 
that  a  general  glut — that  is,  a  general  fall  in  the 
prices  of  the  mass  of  commodities  below  their  pro- 
ducing cost — is  tantamount  to  a  rise  in  the  general 
exchangeable  value  of  money  ;  and  is  a  proof,  not 
of  an  excessive  supply  of  goods,  but  of  a  deficient 
supply  of  money,  against  which  the  goods  have  to 
be  exchanged.  Suppose  every  article  in  the  mar- 
ket to  have  fallen  in  price  fifty  per  cent.  This  is 
no  proof  that  any  one  article  has  fallen  in  value  ; 
that  is,  in  general  estimation  as  compared  with  the 
rest.  Still  less  is  it  any  proof  that  there  has  been 
R 


194  POLITICAL   ECONOMY, 

an  over-production  of  all  goods  (which  is,  in  fact,  an 
unintelligible  proposition,  for  how  can  there  be  too 
great  an  abundance  of  all  good  things  1  Can  the 
desires  of  man  ever  be  sated  ?).  It  is  simply  a 
proof  that  the  value  of  money  has  risen  one  hundred 
per  cent. 

But  money,  being  employed  as  the  measure  of 
value,  ought  itself  to  be  essentially  invariable. 
Hence  the  duty  of  governments,  while  enforcing 
the  employment  of  money  of  any  kind  as  a  medi- 
um of  exchange,  to  take  all  possible  precautions 
against  its  liability  to  vary  in  value,  and  to  guard 
in  every  way  against  fluctuations  which  tend  to  de- 
range the  whole  course  of  trade,  to  vitiate  all  money 
contracts,  and  convert,  as  we  have  witnessed  in 
late  years,  the  triumphs  of  invention,  the  success  of 
industry,  the  very  abundance  of  produce  of  every 
description,  into  a  source  of  suffering  to  every  class 
of  producers ! 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  195 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DISTRIBUTION   OF   WEALTH. 

Natural  and  necessary  Inequality  of  Conditions  and  Property. 
—  Adventitious  Advantages.— Natural  Right  of  Succession  to 
Property  by  Will  or  Inheritance. — Variety  of  Conventional 
Rules.— Test  of  their  Equity.— Natural  Distribution  of  new 
Wealth—among  Labourers,  Land-owners,  and  Capitalists — 
can  be  determined  only  by  the  Principle  of  free  Exchange. — 
The  same  Principle  tends  to  the  greatest  Increase  of  distribu- 
table Produce. — Limitation  of  Interference  of  Government  to 
the  securing  of  Persons  and  Property. 

IN  as  far  as  we  have  hitherto  traced  the  natural 
laws  which  determine  the  production  of  wealth,  it 
has,  we  think,  been  apparent  throughout  that  the 
conditions  most  favourable  for  its  increase  are 
general  education,  both  moral  and  intellectual,  and 
the  free  and  secure  enjoyment  by  every  adult  indi- 
vidual of  his  personal  liberty,  natural  advantages, 
and  acquired  property ;  conditions  which  necessa- 
rily include  freedom  of  industry  and  exchange,  and 
the  free  use  of  the  spontaneous  bounty  of  Heaven. 

There  would  have  been  good  reason  for  pre- 
suming d  priori,  that  the  general  rules  which  tend 
to  bring  about  the  greatest  aggregate  of  produc- 
tion are  the  most  favourable  to  the  interest  of  all 
consumers.  For  the  more  there  is  to  divide,  the 
larger,  it  is  probable,  will  be  the  share  of  each. 

But  we  are  not  left  on  this  point  to  a  mere  bal- 
ancing of  probabilities.  For  it  may  be  made  man- 
ifest that  these  great  and  abiding  principles,  at  the 


196  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

same  time  that  they  swell  the  amount  of  wealth, 
tend  likewise  to  distribute  it  in  the  most  equitable 
manner  among  the  various  classes  of  individuals 
who  have  in  any  way  co-operated  in  its  production. 
The  latter  tendency  is,  indeed,  the  condition  and 
cause  of  the  former.  The  certainty  of  freely  and 
fully  enjoying  the  fruits  of  productive  labour  and 
ingenuity,  is  the  most  efficient  stimulus  to  the  exer- 
tion of  these  powers  and  the  increase  of  their  re- 
sults. It  is  the  main  object  of  this  work  to  prove, 
that  the  greatest  aggregate  production  of  wealth 
flows  from  the  same  plain  and  simple  principles  of 
natural  right  which  ensure  its  most  equitable  dis- 
tribution, and  which  tend  at  the  same  time  to  the 
production  of  the  greatest  aggregate  of  human 
happiness.* 

We  say  the  most  equitable  distribution.  Great 
was  the  mistake  of  those  philanthropists  who  have 
interpreted  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  good 
things  of  life  to  mean  their  equal  distribution.  No 
two  conditions  can  be  more  incongruous  than  these. 
Any  attempt  to  effect  an  equality  of  property  among 
men,  instead  of  approaching  to  equity,  would  in- 
volve the  extreme  of  injustice;  instead  of  being 

*  This  is  in  no  degree  inconsistent  with  what  was  urged  in 
an  earlier  chapter  (p.  64),  as  to  an  increase  of  wealth  being  no 
measure  of  the  increase  of  happiness.  Wealth  may,  for  a  time, 
be  increased  at  a  great  sacrifice  of  human  happiness,  as  in  the 
instances  we  there  gave ;  though,  in  the  long  run,  such  sacrifices 
will  be  found  to  have  occasioned  a  diminution  of  the  aggregate 
productiveness,  by  checking  the  growth  of  population,  and  the 
improvement  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  which  require  a  condition 
of  eas«,  leisure,  and  plenty,  freedom  both  of  the  physical  and 
mental  faculties,  the  stimulus  of  hope,  and  the  prospect  of  an 
indefinite  amelioration  of  our  circumstances,  for  their  lull  devel- 
opment. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  197 

consonant  to  the  law  of  nature,  such  a  state  could 
only  be  maintained  by  the  continual  infraction  of 
that  la\v. 

The  difference  naturally  existing  between  the 
bodily  and  mental  powers  and  dispositions  of  indi- 
viduals, must  necessarily,  under  the  natural  law  of 
production  and  distribution,  create  great  inequality 
in  their  several  possessions  and  stations.  How- 
ever  equal  their  position  when  they  began  the 
world,  the  industrious,  sharp-witted,  intelligent,  ac- 
tive, energetic,  ingenious,  prudent,  and  frugal  must 
speedily  leave  behind  the  idle,  slow,  stupid,  care- 
less,  improvident,  and  extravagant.  The  former 
will  acquire  considerable  property  under  circum- 
stances in  which  the  latter  will  scarcely  procure 
a  maintenance.  But  ajiy  attempt  to  counteract 
this,  the  natural  law  of  distribution,  which  awards 
to  each  workman  the  produce  of  his  own  exertions, 
must  proportionately  check  the  disposition  of  each 
to  avail  himself  of  his  natural  capacity,  or  to  ac- 
quire additional  powers,  and  would,  therefore,  be 
no  less  impolitic  than  unjust. 

Accidental  circumstances  add,  no  doubt,  to  this 
natural  and  necessary  inequality  of  conditions. 
Yet  would  it  not  be  .safe  or  right  to  interfere  with 
their  influence,  since  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
separate  the  advantages  that  an  individual  derives 
by  accident  from  those  which  are  the  consequence 
of  foresight  and  enterprise.  A  man's  property 
may  certainly  be  improved  by  accident ;  as,  for  ex- 
ample, by  the  discovery  of  a  productive  vein  of 
«ietal  or  coal,  or  a  valuable  quarry  on  his  estate. 
But  who  is  to  determine  whether  his  discovery  was 
not  in  a  great  degree,  perhaps  wholly,  the  result  of 
R2 


198  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

laborious  study  and  research  ?  Were  the  right  of 
property  denied  or  interfered  with  in  such  things 
as  appeared  to  derive  a  value  from  accident,  it  is 
obvious  that  much  of  the  ingenuity  and  enterprise, 
which  form  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  economical 
improvement,  would  be  deadened  by  the  uncertainty 
of  obtaining  their  reward. 

It  has  been  proposed,  as  an  exceedingly  just 
mode  of  raising  a  national  revenue,  that  the  reve- 
nue from  land  should  be  directly  taxed  ;  or,  at 
least,  that  portion  of  it  which  is  the  result  of  acci» 
dents  of  position.  The  same  objection  (and  it  is  a 
very  strong  one)  applies  to  this  proposal.  It  is  very 
true  that  the  value  of  a  landed  estate  sometimes 
rises  enormously  without  any  evident  exertions  on 
the  part  of  its  proprietor,  but  in  consequence  either 
of  its  fortuitous  proximity  to  a  flourishing  manufac^ 
turing  or  commercial  town ;  or  of  a  new  canal  or 
railroad  being  carried  through  it ;  or  of  its  soil  or 
situation  being  found  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
growth  of  some  valuable  products.  But  is  it  cer. 
tain  that  the  proprietor  of  land  under  such  circum- 
stances is  wholly  passive,  and  takes  no  part  in  pro- 
moting and  encouraging  the  improvement  which  is 
likely  to  confer  on  him  so  special  a  benefit  ?  We 
do  not  dispute  that,  in  the  case  of  growing  towns, 
it  is  the  duty  of  every  government,  acting  for  the 
interests  of  the  public,  to  make  an  early  and  suffi- 
cient reservation  of  tracts  of  land  in  their  immedi. 
ate  neighbourhood,  to  be  applied  to  purposes  of 
public  health  and  convenience.  But  farther  inter, 
ference,  even  in  such  an  extreme  case,  would  prob- 
ably be  deleterious.  In  the  improvement  and  ex. 
tension  of  towns,  in  the  construction  of  new  canals, 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  199 

railroads,  and  turnpike  roads,  it  is  usual  to  see  the 
proprietors  of  land,  whose  interests  are  likely  to  be 
advanced  by  such  measures,  take  a  very  prominent 
part ;  and  any  tax  upon  the  increased  rents  de- 
rived from  such  general  improvements  would  be 
certain  to  delay  and  discourage  their  execution. 

Of  the  causes  of  inequality  in  the  economical 
condition  of  men,  there  are  none  more  strikingly 
obvious,  or  more  frequently  declaimed  against  as 
artificial  and  unjust,  than  the  laws  of  inheritance 
rand  succession  to  property. 

In  speaking  of  the  natural  right  to  property  as 
founded  on  the  labour  by  which  it  is  appropriated, 
we  purposely  deferred  the  consideration  of  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  transfer  of  the  right  on  the  decease 
,of  the  individual  labourer.  It  would  clearly  be 
-quite  contrary  to  the  interests  of  society,  that  prop- 
erty, on  the  death  of  its  owner,  should  cease  to  be- 
long to  any  one  ;  since  this  could  not  fail  to  renew 
all  the  dangerous  personal  struggles  and  ceaseless 
contentions  which  it  is  the  object  of  the  primary 
institutions  of  society  to  prevent.  It  is  equally  ev- 
ident that,  since  the  perfect  and  complete  owner- 
ship of  property,  necessary,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
stimulate  its  production,  includes  the  power  of  free- 
ly disposing  of  it  by  sale,  loan,  or  gift,  in  any  man- 
ner the  owner  pleases,  it  must,  in  reason,  include  the 
power  of  disposing  of  it  after  death.  For  a  denial 
of  that  power,  or  any  serious  restraint  upon  it, 
would  be  easily  evaded  by  disposing  of  the  proper- 
ty by  gift  or  sale  during  life,  instead  of  by  testa- 
mentary bequest.  The  liberty  to  appoint  a  suc- 
cessor to  property  after  death  is  therefore  part 
and  parcel  of  the  natural  right  to  its  ownership  and 


200  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

free  disposal,  and  cannot  be  reasonably  or  safely 
separated  from  it.  That  it  has  ever  been  so  con- 
sidered by  the  unprejudiced  sentiments  of  mankind  is 
shown  by  the  almost  universal  prevalence,  through 
every  age  and  nation,  of  a  law  or  custom,  giving  a 
dying  person  the  power  of  disposing  of  his  proper- 
ty by  will. 

In  the  absence  of  testamentary  disposition,  the 
natural  rule  is  clearly  inheritance ;  that  is  to  say, 
that  the  property  devolve  on  the  children,  or,  in 
default,  on  the  nearest  relatives  of  the  deceased 
owner,  upon  the  reasonable  presumption  that,  if  he 
had  not  neglected  to  make  a  will,  or  had  not  been 
prevented  from  doing  so  by  casualty,  he  would 
have  disposed  of  his  property  in  that  manner.* 
The  necessity  is  very  obvious,  that  the  rules  of  in- 
heritance  or  succession  should  be  strictly  laid  down 
by  law,  in  order  to  prevent  that  confusion  which 
any  doubt  as  to  ownership  must  occasion. 

The  rules  established  on  this  ground  in  different 

*  Blackstone  calls  "  the  permanent  right  to  property,"  as  well 
as  that  of  children  to  the  inheritance  of  their  parents,  "  not  a 
natutal,  but  a  civil  right."  His  learned  commentator,  Professor 
Christian,  justly  corrects  this  error.  "  The  notion,"  he  says, 
"  of  property  is  universal,  and  is  suggested  to  the  mind  of  man  by 
reason  and  nature,  prior  to  all  positive  institutions.  If  the  laws 
of  the  land  were  suspended,  we  should  be  under  the  same  moral 
obligation  to  refrain  from  invading  each  other's  property  as  from 
attacking  each  other's  persons."  Again :  "  The  affection  of  pa- 
rents towards  their  children  is  the  most  powerful  and  universal 
principle  which  nature  has  implanted  in  the  human  breast ;  and 
it  cannot  be  conceived,  even  in  the  savage  state,  that  any  one  is 
so  destitute  of  affection  and  of  reason  as  not  to  revolt  at  the  po- 
sition that  a  stranger  has  as  good  a  right  as  his  children  to  the 
property  a  of  deceased  parent.  H&redes  successoresque  sui  libsri 
seems  not  to  have  been  confined  to  the  woods  of  Germany,  but 
to  be  one  of  the  first  laws  of  the  code  of  Nature," — Blackstone, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  11. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  201 

countries  have  varied  greatly  ;  and  all  these  varie- 
ties cannot  be  equally  accordant  with  natural  right, 
that  is,  with  the  permanent  interests  of  society. 
Some,  indeed,  are  manifestly  impolitic,  from  inter- 
fering too  much  with  the  natural  laws  of  distribu- 
tion, and  with  that  free  disposal  of  the  products  of 
industry  which  is  so  essential  to  its  encouragement. 
Others  err  in  the  opposite  sense,  by  permitting  the 
owner  of  landed  property  to  determine  its  descent 
not  merely  to  an  immediate  successor,  but  to  an  end- 
less  succession,  through  continued  generations.* 
To  confer  such  a  power  on  any  individual  is  evi- 
dently unjustifiable.  Property,  landed  property 
especially,  requires  continual  protection,  repairs, 
and  expensive  management.  The  land-owner 
who,  during  a  long  occupation,  has,  at  much  pains 
and  cost  to  himself,  preserved  or  increased  the  val- 
ue of  his  estate,  has  earned  as  equitable  a  right  to 
dispose  of  it  at  his  death  as  any  of  its  former  pos- 
sessors, even  as  he  who  may  have  originally  res- 
cued it  from  a  state  of  waste.  To  deny  him  this 
power  is  to  lessen  his  interest  in  doing  justice  to 
Bis  property.  It  is,  in  fact,  acting  in  opposition  to 
.the  very  principle  which  sanctions  the  establish, 
ment  of  a  right  at  all  to  property  in  land — the  expe- 
diency of  encouraging  its  improvement.  There  are 
many  other  strong  grounds  of  objection,  both  politi- 
cal and  moral,  to  endless  entails  ;  perhaps  to  any 
kind  of  entail,  and  also  to  the  right  of  primogeniture ; 

*  The  law  of  France  may  be  instanced,  perhaps,  as  an  exam- 
pie  of  the  first  error,  that  of  Scotland  of  the  last.  By  the  pres- 
ent French  law,  a  parent  is  obliged  to  divide  his  property  equally 
among  his  children,  except  that,  having  made  as  many  shares  as 
there  are  children,  he  may  give  two  of  these  shares  to  a  favouriti 
or  deserving  one, 


202  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

but  we  forbear  to  dwell  on  them,  as  likely  to  lead  us 
too  far  from  our  subject.  It  is  sufficient  to  have 
shown  that  their  tendency  is  opposed  to  the  very 
principle  on  which  the  right  to  property  in  land  is 
founded.  The  true  course  which  legislation  should 
endeavour  to  steer  is  to  afford  to  individuals  such 
power  of  disposition  over  their  property  as  may  en- 
courage  them  to  preserve  and  improve  it,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  discourage,  if  not  prevent,  the  ty- 
ing up  in  mortmain*  of  large  properties,  and  the 
excessive  accumulation  of  landed  estates  in  few 
hands. 

It  is  clear,  from  what  has  been  said  on  this  point, 
that  the  mode  in  which  wealth  distributes  itself  by 
the  free  operation  of  the  natural  laws  of  production 
necessarily  occasions  great  inequalities  of  proper- 
ty and  position  among  the  members  of  every  soci- 
ety. Under  this  natural  system  of  distribution — 
which  will  be  that  of  all  just  and  wise  legislation — 
some  may  possess  wealth  beyond  what  their  own 
exertions  have  produced,  and  which  has  devolved 
to  them  by  gift  or  bequest ;  but  all  who  have  con- 
tributed to  the  production  of  new  wealth  will  be 
confirmed  in  the  enjoyment  and  free  disposal  of 
whatever  they  have  created. 

Let  us  take  a  rapid  survey  of  the  different  chan- 
nels into  which  all  newly-created  wealth  will  spon- 
taneously distribute  itself. 

There  are,  as  has  been  shown,  but  three  ele- 
mentary sources  of  wealth,  labour,  land,f  and  cap. 

*  Property  is  said  to  be  in  mortmain  (i.  e.,  dead  hands)  when 
its  possessor  cannot  alienate  it. 

t  It  may  be  proper  to  remark  here  (having  omitted  to  do  so 
in  the  proper  place),  that  this  enumeration  of  the  elements  of 
wealth  is  incomplete.  Besides  labour,  land,  and  capital,  there 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  203 

ital ;  and  these,  in  European  countries,  are  generally 
owned  by  more  or  less  distinct  parties  :  whence  it 
has  become  convenient,  and  is  usual,  for  writers  to 
divide  the  general  body  of  those  who  co-operate  in 
production  and  share  its  results  into  three  principal 
classes  ;  namely,  labourers,  landowners,  and  cap- 
italists.*  Between  these  parties,  their  joint  prod- 
uce naturally  divides  itself  in  the  manner  and  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  we  have  already  in  part  noticed, 
under  the  name  of  the  wages  of  labour,  the  rent  of 
land,  and  the  profit  of  capital;  and  the  share  of 
each  class  constitutes  its  income  or  revenue. 

This  general  classification  is  useful,  as  facilita- 
ting the  analysis  of  the  phenomena  of  society.  It 
is  obvious,  however,  that  the  three  classes  are  by 
no  means  nicely  distinguishable.  On  the  contrary, 
there  are  many  individuals  who  partake,  more  or 
less,  of  two,  and  some  of  all  three,  characters. 
The  labourer,  for  instance,  in  this  and  some  other 
countries,  is  often  the  owner  of  the  land  he  culti- 
vates, as  well  as  of  the  tools,  live  stock,  and  other 
small  capital  with  which  his  labour  is  aided.  In 
this  case,  his  wages,  profit,  and  rent  will  be  mixed 
together  so  as  to  be  indistinguishable.  Few  labour- 
ers, in  any  country,  are  without  some  little  capital 

is  another  and  a  very  large  source  of  wealth  noticed  in  a  prece- 
ding chapter,  viz.,  the  exclusive  possession  of  instruments  and 
processes,  of  extraordinary  skill,  powerful  connexions,  &c.  As 
these  owe  their  origin  in  many  instances  to  nature  or  accident, 
they  are  analogous  to  land ;  and  hence,  instead  of  making  land 
one  of  the  principal  elements  of  wealth,  it  should  rather  have 
been  considered  as  a  species,  of  which  all  these  natural  and  ad- 
ventitious advantages  would  have  formed  the  genus. — See,  on 
this  subject,  Mr.  Senior,  in  Whately's  Logic,  p.  320. — Ed. 

*  It  is  a  happy  thing  for  the  American  people  that  this  separa- 
tion, so  fruitful  in  jealousy  and  strife,  has  not  yet  become  preva- 
lent among  them. 


204  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

in  the  tools  of  their  craft.  Again,  the  owners  of 
considerable  capital  are,  for  the  most  part,  labour- 
ers.  Merchants,  manufacturers,  wholesale  and  re* 
tail  traders,  and  ship-owners,  personally  superin- 
tend the  employment  of  their  capital ;  and  the  re- 
muneration of  their  labour,  as  we  have  before  seen, 
is  vulgarly  included  in  the  gross  profit  of  their 
capital,  under  the  term  living  profits.  A  man  of 
superior  abilities  or  experience  will  often  employ 
his  capital  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  in  twice  as- 
large  a  return  as  that  cleared  by  his  duller  neigh- 
bour ;  and  it  would  be  no  less  difficult  than  unne. 
cessary  to  determine  whether  this  is  to  be  reckon- 
ed increased  profit  or  wages. 

The  class  of  landowners  is,  in  England,  rather 
more  broadly  distinguished  from  the  others,  though 
not  a  few,  as  has  just  been  said,  cultivate  their  land 
by  their  own  skill  and  industry,  as  well  as  with 
their  own  capital.  Even  the  great  body  of  wealthy 
land-owners  of  that  country,  though  not  personally 
engaged  in  the  business  of  cultivation,  are  in  the 
habit  of  expending  much  capital  on  their  estates, 
in  erecting  and  keeping  up  fences,  drains,  roads, 
farm-buildings,  &c.,  the  cost  of  which  is  usually 
defrayed  by  the  landlord.  Capital,  however,  so 
expended,  as  has  been  already  explained,  becomes 
no  longer  distinguishable  from  land,  and  its  return 
merges  in  rent. 

The  proprietors  of  canal,  bank,  and  joint-stock 
company  shares,  as  well  as  all  of  what  are  called 
sleeping  partners,  from  their  not  being  personally 
engaged  in  business,  are  pure  capitalists  ;  their  in* 
come  being  solely  derived  from  the  net  profit  or 
interest  of  their  capital. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  205 

Mortgagees,  pensioners,  proprietors  of  govern- 
ment stock,  and  other  owners  of  fixed  money  in- 
comes, form  a  class  apart  from  any  of  the  three 
which  we  have  been  considering.  They  are  sim- 
ply creditors,  and  can  scarcely  be  called  capitalists 
in  any  accurate  classification  of  the  owners  of 
wealth.  Their  property  is  not  capital  until  it  be 
realized  :  it  is  merely  a  debt  secured  by  law  upon 
the  land,  capital,  or  labour  in  the  ownership  of 
other  parties. 

In  whatever  proportions  the  several  classes  of 
labourers,  capitalists,  and  land-owners  contribute 
their  quota  to  the  production  of  wealth,  in  that 
proportion  have  they  clearly  an  equitable  title  to 
share  it.  But  by  whom  and  by  what  rule  is  it  to 
be  determined  in  what  proportion  any  of  the  par- 
ties concerned  have  contributed  towards  the  pro- 
duction of  any  portion  of  wealth  ?  No  after-anal- 
ysis, however  laboured,  could  pretend  to  discover, 
with  any  accuracy,  the  relative  amount  of  these 
various  contributions.  No  tribunal  that  could  be 
established  would  decide  the  point  so  as  to  satisfy 
all  the  parties  of  the  correctness  of  its  verdict. 
There  exists  no  test,  no  common  measure  of  the 
relative  value  of  labour,  land,  and  capital,  independ* 
ent  of  the  estimation  of  their  owners.  This  can 
be  ascertained  only  at  the  time  the  contributions 
are  made  or  arranged,  and  by  no  other  judges  than 
the  interested  parties  themselves,  and  by  no  other 
means  than  their  voluntary  settlement  of  terms  with 
one  another  ;  in  short,  only  by  previous  bargain  or 
contract  inter  se. 

In  one  word,  the  principle  of  free  exchange  can 
alone  bring  about  a  fair  adjustment  of  their  rel- 


206  POLITICAL    ECONOMY* 

ative  claims  on  their  joint  produce.  Take,  for  il- 
lustration, the  simplest  case  :  Suppose  A.  a  labour- 
er, to  have  raised  a  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  by 
cultivating  the  land  of  B.,  C.  having  advanced  him 
on  loan  the  necessary  implements,  and  D.  the  food 
on  which  he  subsisted  while  at  work.  What  pos- 
sible guide  can  there  be  to  the  determination  of  the 
equitable  share  of  A.,  B.,  C.,  and  D.  respectively  in 
the  value  of  the  wheat,  except  the  terms  which 
they  shall  freely  have  agreed  upon  with  each  oth- 
er at  the  commencement  of  the  undertaking  ?  And 
if  this  be  true  in  the  simplest  cases,  it  is  equally 
true  of  the  more  complicated  ;  which  it  would  be 
still  more  impracticable  for  any  foreign  party  to 
adjudicate. 

Custom  will,  indeed,  establish  a  sort  of  standard 
by  which  these  questions  may  be  determined,  in 
the  absence  of  previous  agreement :  as,  if  a  mas- 
ter  hire  a  labourer  without  specifying  the  wages 
he  intends  giving,  those  ordinarily  given  for  labour 
of  that  class  by  the  custom  of  the  country  will  be 
understood  by  both  parties  ;.  and  custom  will,  in  the 
same  manner,  determine  the  fair  rent  of  land  of  a 
certain  quality,  and  the  fair  interest  of  money. 
But  the  custom  itself  consists  only  of  the  average 
of  the  free  and  voluntary  agreement  of  parties 
similarly  circumstanced  through  the  neighbour, 
hood.  Any  attempt  to  tie  down  such  agreements 
generally,  as  by  a  law,  establishing  either  a  mini* 
mum  or  a  maximum  of  wages,  interest,  or  rent,  de- 
stroys the  only  criterion  of  their  just  amount,  and 
substitutes  a  blind  and  arbitrary  power,  without 
any  possible  clew  to  guide  it  to  a  correct  decision. 

While  the  principle  of  free  exchange  of  property 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  207 

and  services  can  alone  be  depended  on  for  securing 
an  equitable  distribution  of  wealth  among  the  sev- 
eral classes  who  contribute  to  its  production,  such 
free  exchange  is  equally  indispensable  to  the  en- 
couragement of  all  in  the  work  of  production,  and, 
consequently,  to  the  increase  of  the  aggregate  pro- 
duce to  be  distributed. 

If,  for  example,  the  owner  of  land  were  in  any 
way  restricted  from  freely  disposing  of  his  land  to 
his  greatest  advantage— as  by  letting  it  out  to  farm 
to  the  highest  bidder,  or  in  portions  of  such  size  as 
he  finds  most  profitable— -he  would  have  the  less 
inducement  to  employ  it,  or  allow  it  to  be  employ- 
ed, in  production.  He  might,  by  such  restrictions, 
be  induced  to  prefer  keeping  it  in  a  state  compar- 
atively unproductive  and  unserviceable  to  society. 
If  he  continued  to  cultivate  it,  he  would  be  less 
likely  to  make  any  sacrifice  for  its  improvement, 
by  expending  a  portion  of  his  rents  in  drainage, 
buildings,  planting,  or  other  endeavours  to  increase 
its  productiveness.  The  same  consequences  would 
follow  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  were  restrained  by 
a  tax  or  penalty  from  laying  out  any  part  of  his 
domain  in  park  or  pleasure-ground,  according  to 
his  taste.  He  would  be  less  likely  to  purchase  or 
reside  upon  an  estate ;  and  its  general  productive- 
ness would  probably,  in  the  long  run,  be  diminished 
rather  than  increased  by  such  restriction. 

Again,  in  whatever  degree  the  capitalist  may  be 
interfered  with  in  the  free  disposal  of  his  property 
to  his  greatest  advantage  (as  is  practically  done,  to 
a  great  extent,  throughout  most  European  states, 
by  vexatious  and  embarrassing  regulations,  muni- 
cipal  and  general,  respecting  the  produ&tiQn,  or  re. 


208  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

moval  from  place  to  place,  of  particular  commodi- 
ties, and  as  has  been  proposed  in  England  by  those 
who  would  have  the  law  dictate  to  farmers  what 
number  of  labourers  they  should  employ,  and  how 
they  should  cultivate  their  farms),  in  that  degree 
will  he  be  less  desirous  of  accumulating  capital, 
less  eager  to  discover  and  avail  himself  of  openings 
for  its  profitable  employment,  and  less  capable  of 
making  a  profit  upon  it ;  he  will  be  less  productive 
and  less  economical,  and,  consequently,  a  less  use- 
ful member  of  society. 

And  the  labourer,  in  his  turn,  unless  left  free  to 
make  the  best  bargain  he  can  with  his  employer, 
and  to  carry  his  labour  to  the  best  market,  wher- 
ever it  may  be ;  if  interfered  with  by  regulations 
confining  him  to  particular  occupations  or  particu- 
lar places  in  which  to  exercise  his  industry,  will 
never  fully  put  forth  his  energies ;  but,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  restraint  he  suffers,  will  assume  more 
or  less  of  the  sulky,  idle,  careless,  and  revengeful 
character  of  the  slave ;  will  feel  himself  injured  and 
ill-treated  ;  at  all  events,  wanting  one  of  the  essen- 
tial conditions  of  industry — freedom  of  choice  in 
its  direction — will  be  less  productive,  as  well  as 
less  happy.  Attempts  to  regulate  wages,  whether 
by  fixing  maxima  or  minima,  or  to  regulate  em- 
ployment by  dividing  society  into  cables,  each  con- 
fined to  an  exclusive  occupation,  as  well  as  the  an- 
cient municipal  regulations  with  regard  to  appren- 
ticeships, servitude,  &c.,  appear  to  have  always 
produced  the  effect  of  damping  the  exertions  of  the 
labourers,  and  diminishing  their  productiveness.* 

*  The  author  refers  here  to  certain  absurd  and  oppressive 
regulations  which  formerly  prevailed  in  Europe  in  regard  to  th« 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  209 

Interference  of  any  kind,  in  short,  in  the  spon- 
taneous direction  of  industry,  and  the  free  employ, 
ment  by  their  owners  (subject,  of  course,  to  moral 
law)  of  the  great  agents  in  production,  labour,  land, 
and  capital,  has  the  certain  effect  of  benumbing 
their  powers  and  lessening  the  sum  of  production, 
and,  consequently,  the  shares  of  the  producing  par- 
ties, as  well  as  of  needlessly,  and,  therefore,  unjust- 
ly  curtailing  their  freedom  of  action. 

The  only  interference  allowable  is  that  which 
can  be  shown  to  be  indispensable  for  the  great  ob- 
ject of  securing  the  persons  and  property  of  every 
class,  and  of  giving  a  wise  direction  to  their  pro- 
ductive energies.  The  law  need,  and  ought  to  do 
no  more.  This  comprehends  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  all  the  duties  of  a  government  with  re- 
spect to  wealth.  Subject,  therefore,  to  this  condi- 
tion, and  to  this  only,  perfect  liberty  in  the  volun- 
tary  exchange  of  the  property  and  services  of  indi- 
viduals is  the  only  means  of  giving  full  play  to  the 
development  of  their  productiveness,  and  of  in- 
creasing, to  their  utmost  extent,  the  amount  of 
their  several  shares.  Such  liberty  is,  on  this 
ground,  the  absolute  right  of  every  member  of  so- 
ciety. 

wages  and  distribution  of  labour.  By  one  law,  the  precise 
amount  which  was  to  be  paid  the  labourer  per  day,  as  well  as 
his  diet  and  clothing,  were  prescribed.  By  another,  justices  of 
peace  were  empowered  to  fix  the  price  of  labour  every  Easter  and 
Michaelmas  by  proclamation.  By  a  third,  the  removal  of  ser- 
vants or  artisans  from  one  place  to  another  was  prohibited.  So 
the  number  of  persons  who  could  pursue  a  particular  trade  in 
any  town  was  fixed,  and  no  one  could  offer  his  services  as  a 
journeyman,  much  less  as  a  master,  unless  he  had  served  a  reg- 
ular apprenticeship,  and  been  licensed  by  the  guild  or  trade  cor- 
poration. These  restrictions  will  be  noticed  more  particularly 
hereafter,  when  we  come  to  the  subject  of  Trades'  Unions. — Ed. 
S2 


210  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

The  limitation  introduced  includes,  of  course,  all 
such  appropriations  of  private  property,  and  such 
directions  of  private  action  by  the  government,  as 
are  necessary  for  securing  the  persons  and  prop- 
erty of  all,  as  well  as  those  measures  which  seem 
necessary  to  protect  and  encourge  native  labour 
and  capital  in  their  unequal  competition  with  those 
of  a  foreign  land.  Of  this  nature  are  the  taxes 
imposed  by  law  for  the  support  of  government,  the 
land  and  other  property  taken  from  individuals  in 
laying  out  roads  and  canals,  and  the  duties  imposed 
by  a  government  for  protecting  the  industry  of  its 
own  citizens.  The  extent  to  which  these  powers 
ought  to  be  exercised  will  be  the  subject  of  dis- 
cussion in  a  future  volume. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PRODUCTIVE    INTERESTS. 

Agriculture.  —  Manufactures.  —  Commerce.  —  Progress,  Subdi- 
visions, and  Utility  of  each.— Their  community  of  Interest, 
and  equal  Importance.— Preference  awarded  to  Agriculture, 
owing  to  the  unnatural  existing  relations  of  Population  and 
Subsistence. 

THE  various  branches  of  industry  into  which 
the  business  of  production  resolves  itself  in  a  civ- 
ilized  and  highly  advanced  community,  are  nearly 
infinite  in  number.  They  are  ordinarily  classed, 
however,  for  more  easy  consideration,  into  three 
great  departments,  or,  as  they  are  called,  "  inter' 
ests"  viz.,  the  agricultural,  the  manufacturing,  and 
the  commercial  or  trading  interest. 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  211 

1.  The  Agricultural  interest  includes  all  whose 
land,  capital,  or  labour  is  employed  in  the  growth 
of  food  and  the  raw  materials  of  manufacture. 
The  history  of  agriculture  is  a  subject  of  great  in- 
terest, for  which,  however,  we  must  refer  our  read- 
ers to  the  works  especially  devoted  to  this  subject. 
Of  all  arts,  it  is  perhaps  that  in  which  the  least 
improvement  has  been  made  in  the  course  of  the 
historical  ages,  notwithstanding  its  pre-eminent 
utility.  Still  its  progress  has  been  considerable, 
especially  within  the  last  half  century,  during  which 
time,  owing  to  the  adoption  of  turnip-husbandry, 
the  rotation  of  crops,  the  substitution  of  green 
«rops  for  fallows,  and  the  great  extension  of  sheep, 
farming,  the  produce  of  superior  soils  has  been 
more  than  doubled,  and  large  crops  raised  off 
thousands  of  acres  of  poor  land  which  previously 
would  bear  nothing  to  repay  their  cultivation. 

A  field  is  here  still  open  for  improvements,  to 
which  no  probable  limit  can  toe  assigned.  The 
science  of  agricultural  chymistry  is  yet  in  its  in- 
fancy.  Its  farther  progress  will,  no  doubt,  enable 
us  greatly  to  multiply  the  produce  of  a  limited 
tract,  and,  perhaps,  to  bring  the  most  barren  sur- 
faces into  profitable  cultivation.  Even  now,  a  de- 
ficiency of  manure  is  almost  the  only  check  to  the 
productiveness  of  any  soils,  and  yet  one  of  the 
most  copious  sources  of  supply  of  the  most  valuable 
of  all  manures — the  sewerage  of  great  towns — 
is  almost  wholly  neglected.  By  taking  the  neces- 
sary steps  for  securing  and  applying  this,  a  great 
start  might  probably  be  given  to  the  agriculture  of 
densely-peopled  countries.* 

*  See  Mr.  J.  Martin's  Plan  for  Purifying  the  Air  and  Water 
erf  the  Metropolis,  London,  1833 


212  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

2.  It  is  the  business  of  Manufacturers  to  work 
up  for  use  the  raw  materials  raised  at  home  by  the 
preceding  class,  or  imported  from  abroad  ;  giving 
them  the  shape  of  clothing,  houses,  household  fur- 
niture,  machinery,  tools,  and  a  variety  of  conve- 
niences and  ornaments.  They  comprehend  numer- 
ous branches  ;  such  as  the  iron,  the  woollen,  the 
cotton,  the  silk,  the  leather,  the  stocking,  the  glove, 
the  hat,  the  carpet,  the  lace,  and  the  soap  trades, 
the  house  and  ship  builders,  cabinet-makers,  gold 
and  silver  smiths,  watch-makers,  brass  ornament 
makers,  cutlers,  printers  and  publishers,  engineers, 
&c. ;  and  each  of  these  separate  trades  is  subdivided 
into  many  distinct  avocations.  There  are  many 
to  whom  the  term  manufacturers  is  not  ordinarily 
applied,  who  would  yet  be  reckoned  as  such  in  any 

feneral  classification  of  the  entire  body  of  pro- 
ucers  :  such  are  tailors,  shoemakers,  carpenters, 
joiners,  smiths,  plasterers,  bakers,  maltsters,  cur- 
riers, &c.,  with  the  entire  class  of  artisans  em- 
ployed  in  these  several  trades.* 

The  economical  history  of  manufactures  is  a 
subject  of  very  considerable  interest  to  the  student 
of  political  economy,  but  would,  if  fully  gone  into, 
occupy  a  much  larger  space  than  can  be  afforded 
to  it  in  this  little  volume. 

The  division  of  labour  which  takes  place  in  a 

*  The  term  manufacture  is  usually  applied  only  to  establish- 
ments on  a  large  scale  ;  and  those  who  produce  the  same  article 
on  a  small  scale  are  called  makers  rather  than  manufacturers : 
but  in  a  scientific  treatise,  and  when  employed  to  designate  a 
class  of  operations  in  contradistinction  to  agriculture,  the  term 
must  be  extended,  so  as  to  embrace  all  those  occupations  by 
which  the  raw  productions  of  the  earth  are  worked  up  into  ob- 
jects of  use  or  ornament,  whether  by  the  labour  of  one  individ- 
ual or  of  many. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  213 

very  rude  state  of  society  must,  even  in  the  infan- 
cy of  every  nation,  have  effected  a  certain  separa- 
tion between  the  classes  who  occupy  themselves  in 
tilling  the  soil  and  gathering  its  crops,  and  those 
who  are  engaged  in  working  up  these  crops  or  the 
other  raw  products  of  the  earth,  and  fitting  them 
for  general  use,  in  the  form  of  tools,  raiment,  orna- 
ments, houses,  furniture,  &c* 

A  farther  subdivision  of  this  class  of  industrious 
occupations  among  different  trades  or  crafts,  each 
giving  employment  to  distinct  ranks  of  artificers, 
seems  likewise  to  have  taken  place  at  a  very  early 
period  in  the  history  of  art.  The  goldsmiths,  the 
jewellers,  the  workers  in  iron,  in  brass,  in  wood,  in 
stone,  in  pottery,  in  woollen,  and  in  linen ;  the  shoe- 
makers, the  tailors,  the  carpenters,  the  plasterers, 
and  the  masons,  are  spoken  of  in  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures and  other  early  records,  and  appear  to  have 
followed  exclusively  their  several  avocations  from 
the  first  dawn  of  civilization.  A  common  profes- 
sional education,  a  common  interest  in  the  advance- 
ment of  their  art,  and  a  desire,  by  combination  and 
monopoly,  to  exclude  competition  and  obtain  a  high- 
er return  for  their  labour,  seem,  in  most  countries, 
to  have  occasioned  the  union  of  the  artisans  follow- 
ing any  one  of  these  several  trades  into  a  frater- 
nity, sometimes  sanctioned  by  charters,  like  the 
guilds  of  the  European  states.  Some  of  these 
fraternities  unquestionably  attained  a  very  high 
excellence  in  their  particular  departments  of  in- 
dustry. The  association  of  freemasons,  to  whose 
migratory  labours  it  is  generally  supposed  that  we 
are  indebted  for  nearly  all  the  rich  and  beautiful 
ecclesiastical  and  domestic  edifices  which  were 


214  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

reared  through  Europe  during  the  eleventh  and 
five  succeeding  centuries,  evinced  a  purity  of  taste 
and  fertility  of  conception  in  architectural  design, 
as  well  as  a  power  of  execution,  which  the  builders 
of  modern  times  have  vainly  attempted  to  rival. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  workmanship  of  the  ar- 
morers, or  of  the  goldsmiths  and  jewellers,  of  the 
fifteenth  century  ;  and  carving  in  both  wood  and 
stone  was  carried,  about  the  same  time,  nearly  to 
equal  perfection.  The  gorgeous  silks  and  velvets 
of  the  same  period  probably  could  not  be  imitated 
by  any  artisans  in  the  present  day  ;  and  tapes- 
tries and  other  productions  of  the  loom  were  then 
wrought  with  an  excellence  which  has  never  been 
surpassed.  The  art  of  staining  glass  may  be  men- 
tioned as  another  in  which  modern  artists  are  de- 
cidedly inferior  to  those  which  preceded  them  some 
centuries  back. 

On  the  whole,  however,  manufacturing  industry 
has  of  late  years  accomplished  an  extraordinary 
advance  in  its  productive  capacities,  and  in  its  inu 
portance  as  compared  with  agriculture.  In  former 
ages,  every  village  probably  had,  as  now,  its  inferior 
handicraftsmen — its  smith,  mason,  carpenter,  tai- 
lor, and  shoemaker ;  while  the  more  important 
branches  of  industry  were  carried  on  in  towns,  in 
which  the  manufacturers  of  valuable  goods  cluster- 
ed together,  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  protection 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  great  and  little  robbers 
of  those  unsettled  times,  or  along  such  streams  as 
afforded  the  necessary  aid  of  water-power.  But, 
though  the  articles  of  clothing  and  ornament  which 
ministered  to  the  luxuries  of  the  wealthy  were  fab- 
ricated by  artisans  of  this  description,  the  more 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 


215 


homely  wants  of  the  humbler  classes  were  still 
chiefly  supplied  by  the  exercise  of  their  own  rude 
industry.  The  coarse  clothing  of  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  the  people,  woollens  as  well  as  linens, 
were,  till  within  a  very  recent  period,  both  spun 
and  wove,  or  knitted  at  home  by  the  wives  and 
children  of  the  agricultural  labourers.  Many  ob- 
jects of  ornament  and  convenience  were  made  in 
the  same  simple  manner  by  the  farmer  and  his 
family.  It  is  chiefly  within  the  last  fifty  years,  and 
since  the  introduction  of  the  steam-engine,  power- 
loom,  and  cotton-gin,  that  manufacturing  industry 
has  so  developed  itself  as  to  work  a  great  and  stri- 
king change  in  the  habits,  the  manners,  the  rela- 
tions, and  the  employments  of  our  population. 
The  number  of  persons  at  present  engaged  in  the 
various  branches  of  manufacture  in  Great  Britain 
nearly  equals  that  of  the  persons  employed  in  agri- 
culture.* In  that  country  they  are,  for  the  most 

*  ANALYSIS  OF   OCCUPATIONS   IN   GREAT   BRITAIN, 

(From  MarshalVs  Statistics  of  the  British  Empire.) 


DESCRIPTION. 

Number  of  Families. 

Persons. 

1821.      1      183i. 

1831. 

1.  Agricultural  occupiers    . 
2.  Agricultural  labourers    . 
3.  Mining  labourers  ... 
4.  Millers,  bakers,  butchers 
5.  Artificers,  builders,  &c. 
6  Manufacturers                 . 

250,000 
728,956 
110,000 
160,000 
200,000 
340,000 
150,000 
310,239 
319,300 

80,000 
100,000 
192,888 

250,000 
800,000 
120,000 
180,000 
230,000 
400,000 
180,000 
359,000 
277,017 

90.000 
110,000 
316,487 

1,500,000 
4,800,000 
600,000 
900,000 
650,000 
2,400,000 
1,080,000 
2,100,000 
831,000 

460,000 
110,000 
1,116,398 

7.  Tailors,  shoemakers,  hatters 

9.  Seamen  and  soldiers  .    .    . 
10.  Clerical,  legal,  and  medical 
classes  

11.  Disabled  paupers  .... 
12.  Proprietors  and  annuitants 
Totals 

2,941,383 

3,303,504 

16,537,398 

216  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

part,  concentrated  in  large  and  populous  towns, 
many  of  which  have  grown  up  with  astonishing  ra- 
pidity upon  those  points  where  coal  and  iron  mines, 
water-carriage,  or  other  facilities  are  found  for  the 
fabrication  of  any  peculiar  commodity.  The  ex- 
istence of  this  portion  of  society  is  closely  connect- 
ed with  the  very  variable  condition  of  manufactures  j 
and  when  war,  impolitic  restrictions  on  commerce, 
changes  of  taste  and  fashion,  improvements  in  ma- 
chinery, or  any  of  the  other  casualties  to  which 
such  trades  are  exposed,  occasion  a  stagnation  in 
the  demand  for  their  labour,  large  bodies  of  men 
are  liable  to  be  thrown  out  of  work,  and  placed, 
for  a  time,  in  a  state  of  suffering  and  idleness, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  wise  precautionary  ar* 
rangements,  cannot  but  threaten  great  danger  to 
the  public  peace.  On  the  other  hand,  the  agricul- 
tural part  of  the  population,  while  in  many  respects 
greatly  benefited  by  manufactures,  has  also  suffer- 
ed from  the  failure  of  those  occupations  which  were 
formerly  subsidiary  to  their  principal  one,  and 
which  afforded  them  the  means  of  profitably  em- 
ploying every  idle  hour,  and  nearly  every  member 
of  their  families,  male  or  female,  young  or  old. 
The  loss  of  the  minor  domestic  manufactures,  for* 

From  this  table  it  appears  that  the  agricultural  and  mining: 
classes  compose  about  7-17ths  of  the  whole  population  ;  the 
manufacturing  class  5-17ths;  the  commercial  class  2-17ths; 
the  professional  class,  including  the  army  and  navy r and  the  non- 
producing  class  of  proprietors  and  paupers,  making  up,  in  nearly 
equal  moieties,  the  remaining  3-17ths.  The  decennial  censuses 
that  have  been  taken  since  the  commencement  of  the  present 
century  show  the  great  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the  em- 
ployment of  the  people.  In  1801,  nearly  one  half  the  entire  pop- 
ulation of  England  was  engaged  in  agriculture.  In  1831  the 
proportion  had  fallen  to  about  one  third. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  217 

rly  carried  on  by  the  agricultural  labourer,  forms 
an  offset  to  the  benefit  he  derives  from  the  increased 
demand  which  has  been  created  for  his  products  by 
the  growth  of  manufactures,  and  from  the  dimin- 
ished price  at  which  he  can  now  purchase  many 
of  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life*  These 
evils,  to  which  the  vast,  and,  we  believe,  on  the 
whole,  beneficial  progress  made  by  our  ^manufac- 
turing  system  has  unquestionably  exposed  us,  it 
remains  for  the  government,  and  for  private  indi- 
viduals and  societies  to  mitigate,  so  far  as  is  prac- 
ticable. This  is  to  be  done  in  part  by  such  ar- 
rangements as  are  fitted  to  encourage  and  facili* 
tate  the  free  migration  of  labour  and  the  free  ex* 
change  of  its  produce,  but  yet  more  by  strenuous 
and  well-directed  efforts  to  improve  the  intellectual 
and  moral  condition  of  the  labourers.* 

3.  The  Commercial  class  consists  of  persons 
whose  business  it  is  to  facilitate  the  operations 
both  of  the  agriculturists  and  manufacturers,  by 
supplying  them  with  what  articles  they  require, 
and  taking  of  them  what  they  have  to  dispose  of. 
They  are  the  agents  in  all  the  manifold  exchanges 
that  are  going  on  between  the  different  classes  of 

*  The  picture  drawn  by  Dr.  Kay  (in  a  valuable  tract  of  his) 
of  the  moral  and  physical  condition  of  the  working  classes  em- 
ployed 'ija  the  cotton  manufacture  in  Manchester,  together  with 
the  facts  brought  to  light  by  the  Committees  of  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  employment  of  children  in  factories,  add  some 
frightful  features  to  the  character  of  the  English  manufacturing 
system  ;  so  frightful  that  they  might  lead  us  to  regret  that  it 
was  ever  introduced,  if  we  were  not  certain  that  these  horrors 
are  by  no  means  the  necessary  result  of  the  system,  but  chiefly 
of  the  difficulties  brought  on  by  unwise  legislation,  and,  above 
all,  by  the  sad  neglect  in  that  country,  for  many  years,  of  proper 
efforts  for  the. religious  instruction  and  general  welfare  of  the 
labouring  classes, 

T 


218  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

producers  and  consumers  ;  conveying  goods  of  all 
kinds  from  place  to  place,  so  as  to  equalize  the 
supply  with  the  demand  ;  purchasing  whatever  is 
to  be  sold,  and  selling  whatever  is  required  to  be 
bought.  Commerce  divides  itself,  first,  into  the 
foreign,  and  internal  or  home  trade  ;  and  the  latter, 
into  the  wholesale  and  retail  trades.  These  again 
branch  out  into  almost  numberless  subdivisions, 
characterized  by  the  nature  of  the  article  dealt  in, 
or  the  particular  line  of  business  carried  on. 

There  are  several  other  classes,  which  do  not 
seem  to  be  easily  referrible  to  any  of  the  three 
principal  heads  ;  as  the  persons  engaged  in  mining 
and  quarrying,  in  the  fisheries,  &c. 

All  these  multiform  subdivisions  of  employment 
are  wholly  spontaneous,  the  offspring  of  no  pre- 
concerted arrangements  of  the  statesman  or  the 
legislator,  but  springing  from  that  ever-active  and 
inquisitive  spirit  of  enterprise  and  ardour  for  gain, 
by  which  individuals  are  urged  to  seize  every  open- 
ing  for  the  employment  of  their  ability  or  capital 
that  promises  remuneration.  The  result  is  incal- 
culably beneficial  to  society,  by  reducing  the  cost 
and  improving  the  quality  of  all  that  it  consumes. 
If  any  saving  can  possibly  be  made  in  the  cost  of 
producing  any  article  by  a  subdivision  of  the  ne- 
cessary operations,  it  is  immediately  effected  by 
the  agency  of  this  searching  spirit ;  and  the  com- 
petition of  producers  is  sure  very  shortly  to  secure 
all  the  benefit  of  the  saving  to  the  public  at  large, 
in  a  proportionately  reduced  price  of  the  article. 

The  vast  utility,  for  example,  of  the  wholesale 
and  retail  dealers,  who  adjust  the  supply  of  com. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  219 

modities  of  all  kinds  with  the  utmost  precision  to 
the  demand,  is  obvious  on  the  slightest  considera- 
tion. Acting  under  the  influence  of  self-interest, 
and  with  a  view  principally  to  his  own  profit,  each, 
knowing  the  probable  wants  of  his  peculiar  mar- 
ket, is  strongly  interested  in  selling  as  much  as  he 
possibly  can,  and  yet  equally  interested  in  causing 
nothing  to  be  wasted  through  its  remaining  un- 
sold. Each  striving  to  carry  away  the  custom  of 
his  rivals,  by  tempting  the  public  with  newer,  bet- 
ter, more  varied,  or  more  alluring  articles  at  the 
lowest  price,  they  effect  collectively  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  whole  wealth  of  society  in  the  most 
economical  and  most  convenient  manner  possible. 
And  yet,  because  they  make  a  profit  on  what  they 
sell,  that  is,  get  paid  for  their  labour  and  the  time 
during  which  their  capital  lies  locked  up  in  goods, 
and  the  risk  it  runs  of  damage,  and  for  their  shop 
and  warehouse  rents  ;  because  they  charge  a  prof- 
it on  their  sales  sufficient  to  cover  these  necessary 
expenses  (and  that  it  is  barely  sufficient  for  this 
end  their  mutual  competition  secures),  they  are 
described  by  Mr.  Owen  and  his  followers  as  suck- 
ing the  marrow  of  the  poor  labourers,  and  inter- 
fering hurtfully  between  the  producer  and  consu- 
mer, to  raise  the  cost  of  all  things  to  the  latter.  Mr. 
Owen  has  of  late  put  his  theory  to  the  test  of 
practice,  by  endeavouring  to  dispense  with  these 
intermediate  parties,  and  to  bring  producers  and 
consumers  into  contact  with  each  other.  By  this 
time,  therefore,  it  is  perhaps  tolerably  clear  to 
such  of  his  disciples  as  retain  the  power  of  dis- 
crimination, which  system  is  the  more  economical 
of  the  two, ;  that  which,  if  pursued  to  its  necessary 


220  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

consequences,  would  force  every  labourer  to  pro- 
duce for  himself  almost  everything  he  needs,  and 
send  us  back  to  the  caves  and  woods  of  our  acorn- 
eating  ancestors,  or  that  which  has  carried  us  for- 
ward from  those  wilds  and  caves  to  the  high  pitch 
of  civilization  and  refinement  which,  by  the  bless- 
ing  of  Heaven,  has  been  attained.  With  respect 
to  Mr.  Owen's  clumsy  contrivance  of  labour-notes 
and  a  labour  exchange,  by  which  the  barbarizing 
tendency  of  his  principle  is  meant  to  be  concealed,, 
it  is  evidently  but  a  bank  connected  with  a  large 
wholesale  warehouse  ;  in  which  the  arbitrary  val- 
uation of  a  salaried  clerk  regulates  the  terms  of 
each  sale  and  purchase,  instead  of  the  unerring 
principles  of  competition  among  the  sellers  and 
self-interest  in  the  buyers.  The  scheme  of  labour- 
notes,  moreover,  is  founded  on  the  erroneous  notion 
that  labour  is  the  just  and  true  measure  of  value* 
But  can  any  plan  be  more  likely  to  discourage  in* 
genuity,  industry,  and  the  acquisition  of  skill,  thai* 
one  which  determines  the  reward  of  each  man's 
labour,  not  by  the  intensity  of  his  application  or 
the  amount  of  its  produce,  but  by  its  duration  ; 
thus  giving  to  a  slow,  careless,  and  indolent  labour- 
er the  same  pay  as  to  an  active,  ingenious,  and  en- 
ergetic  one  ? 

The  whole  system  of  society,  as  at  present  constu 
tuted,  is  ONE  GREAT  LABOUR  EXCHANGE, 
in  which  the  services  of  individuals  are  bartered 
by  voluntary  and  mutual  agreement.  The  prog- 
ress of  knowledge  has  suggested  a  variety  of  sub* 
divisions,  not  only  of  the  labour  by  which  com. 
modities  are  produced,  but  likewise  of  the  labour 
required  for  exchanging  them.  An  attempt  to  gel 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  221 

rid  of  these  intermediate  parties  to  the  exchanges 
of  labour  would  put  a  stop  to  by  far  the  greater 
proportion  of  exchanges,  which  could  not,  by  possi- 
bility, be  conducted  between  the  principals,  and  thus 
it  would  render  their  labour  itself  valueless.  Could 
the  coal-miner  of  Newcastle  directly  exchange  the 
produce  of  his  labour  with  the  corn-grower  of 
Lincolnshire,  the  cheese-maker  of  Gloucestershire, 
or  the  cloth-weaver  of  Yorkshire  ?  And  if  there 
must  be  intermediate  parties  to  carry  on  these  and 
similar  exchanges,  experience  and  reason  prove 
that  they  will  be  conducted  more  cheaply  and  ef- 
fectually by  the  competition  of  private  speculators, 
than  by  any  organized  contrivance  for  this  purpose 
that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  frame.  The  idea 
of  these  visionaries  is,  that  the  profit  made  by  the 
intermediate  parties  would  be  saved  to  the  princi- 
pals. But,  in  order  to  a  profit,  there  must  be  a 
capital.  If  the  producers  of  commodities  are 
possessed  of  capital,  they  will  get  as  high  a  profit 
on  its  employment  in  the  business  of  production 
as  the  other  parties  get  in  the  business  of  ex- 
change. If  they  have  no  capital,  they  can  cer- 
tainly divide  no  profit,  under  any  possible  contri- 
vance. 

The  vast  utility  of  the  class  of  retail  dealers,  who 
are  the  immediate  distributors  of  the  principal  ar- 
ticles of  consumption,  must  be  apparent  to  every 
one.  Not  less  useful  and  important  to  society,  in 
its  peculiar  functions,  is  the  class  of  wholesale  deal- 
ers or  merchants ;  who  are  the  primary  agents  in 
the  exchanges  that  take  place  between  producers 
who  live  at  a  distance  from  each  other,  in  different 
districts,  countries,  or  perhaps  climates,  and  the 
T2 


222  POLITICAL  ECONOMY, 

general  carriers  of  goods  from  place  to   place 
throughout  the  world. 

The  advantages  of  commerce,  that  is,  of  an  inter- 
change, between  the  inhabitants  of  different  places? 
of  the  goods  which  their  peculiar  circumstances  of 
skill,  position,  soil,  minerals,  or  climate  enable  them 
to  produce  with  the  greatest  facility,  need  hardly^ 
in  this  age  and  country,  be  dwelt  upon.  It  is  the 
division  of  labour  on  a  large  scale,  and  applied  to 
districts  instead  of  individuals.  Nature  has  sug- 
gested this  territorial  division  of  labour  even  more 
obviously  than  the  personal.  One  district,  for  ex- 
ample, possesses  rich  alluvial  plains,  fitted  for  grow- 
ing grain  ;  the  soil  of  another  is  more  favourable 
for  grazing  cattle  ;  that  of  a  third  for  pasturing 
sheep ;  a  fourth  offers  a  bleak  and  bare  surface? 
but  is  fertile  in  mineral  wealth — in  coal,  perhaps* 
and  iron ;  a  fifth  is  covered  with  timber,  and  a 
sixth  is  washed  by  a  sea  abounding  in  fish.  It 
must  be  impossible  for  the  inhabitants  of  these  sev* 
eral  districts  to  have  any  continued  intercourse 
without  perceiving  the  great  mutual  advantages 
they  have  it  in  their  power  to  secure,  by  applying 
themselves  exclusively  to  the  production  of  those 
commodities  for  which  nature  has  adapted  their 
district,  and  exchanging  them  with  each  other. 
Whether  the  several  places  between  which  such 
commerce  is  carried  on  happen  to  be  connected 
under  the  same  government  or  not,  ought  evidently 
to  make  no  difference  in  the  amount  of  mutual  ben- 
efit  each  derives  from  the  intercourse.  The  ex- 
change, in  reality,  takes  place  between  individuals, 
although  the  subjects  of  different  states,  and  would 
not  be  undertaken  by  each  party  if  it  were  not  ben- 
eficial to  both. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  223 

A  strange  notion  seems  to  have  prevailed  till  to- 
wards the  middle  of  last  century,  even  among  those 
who  were  practically  conversant  with  commerce, 
namely,  that  the  commercial  gains  of  one  nation 
were  always  made  at  the  expense  of  that  with 
which  she  traded  I  Since  foreign  commerce  is  as 
freely  and  voluntarily  undertaken  by  individuals 
as  that  between  inhabitants  of  the  same  state,  and 
for  no  conceivable  purpose  on  either  side  but  indi- 
vidual gain,  it  is  evident  that  it  would  not  be  car- 
ried on  at  all,  unless,  in  its  immediate  results,  it 
were  beneficial  to  both  parties,  and,  through  them, 
to  both  nations.  If  any  of  the  commodities  dealt 
in  are  of  a  pernicious  character,  then,  of  course,  the 
trade  becomes  injurious,  in  its  ultimate  effects,  to 
the  nation  consuming  them.  But  this  arises  not 
from  any  inequality  in  the  nature  of  the  exchange ; 
it  is  rather  to  be  attributed  to  the  vitiated  tastes 
and  habits  of  the  people,  which  lead  them  to  prefer 
pernicious  to  useful  gratification.  Thus  the  opium 
trade  in  China  has  been  considered  by  the  parties, 
and  with  reason,  to  be  reciprocally  profitable  in  a 
pecuniary  point  of  view,  though  in  its  ultimate  ef- 
fects, owing  to  the  prevalence  of  depraved  tastes, 
it  has  been  most  deadly. 

The  profit,  however,  of  the  merchants  on  either 
side  constitutes  evidently  but  a  very  small  propor- 
tion of  the  entire  benefit  derived  by  the  exchanging 
countries.  If  France  sends  to  the  United  States 
silk  to  the  value  of  a  million  in  exchange  for  an 
equivalent  in  cotton,  the  merchants  on  either  side 
may  perhaps  clear  a  profit  of  $50,000  by  the  trans- 
action. But,  in  addition  to  this,  twice  as  much  is 
probably  expended  in  the  employment  of  the  ship- 


224  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

ping  and  internal  carrying-trade  of  each  country  ; 
a  considerable  sum  is  likewise  put  into  the  treasury 
of  each ;  and  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  the  in- 
habitants of  either  country  who  consume  silk  or 
cotton  goods  are  supplied  with  these  commodities 
at  perhaps  two  thirds  the  cost  at  which  they  could 
have  procured  them  of  equal  quality  at  home,  if, 
indeed,  they  could  have  procured  them  at  all. 
Many  things,  now  considered  of  first  necessity,  are 
not  to  be  obtained  without  foreign  commerce. 
Tea,  the  favourite  daily  meal  of  perhaps  every 
family  in  the  land,  is  grown  in  China  alone,  and 
no  attempts  to  raise  it  in  other  countries  have 
been  successful.  Cotton  is  the  produce  of  a  warm 
climate  ;  and,  if  left  to  their  own  resources,  many 
countries  could  not  obtain  an  ounce  of  that  mate- 
rial, which  forms  so  cheap,  healthy,  and  comfortable 
an  article  of  clothing  for  the  great  body  of  their 
population,  male  and  female,  as  well,  perhaps,  as 
one  of  their  principal  staples  of  export.  Sugar, 
another  absolute  necessary  of  life  to  the  present 
generation,  many  nations  might  possibly  grow  at 
home,  but  of  a  very  inferior  quality,  and  at  much 
greater  cost.  Cochineal,  indigo,  and  the  various 
other  substances  used  in  dying  are  not  the  prod- 
uce of  Britain,  and  but  few  of  them  of  the  United 
States.  The  quantity  of  indigo  annually  consumed 
in  the  United  States  is  about  ten  times  greater  than 
that  annually  raised  in  the  same  country.  Near- 
ly  every  drug  or  balsam  employed  in  medicine 
is  of  foreign  growth,  and  could  not  be  obtained 
by  any  efforts  at  home.  Oranges,  so  delicious  to 
the  sick  and  palatable  to  all,  are  purchased  from 
abroad  by  our  flour  and  cloths,  and  could  jaot  be 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  225 

procured  except  by  this  mutual  exchange.  "  Roast 
beef,"  says  a  British  writer,  "  the  Englishman's 
fare — would  to  God  that  every  one  of  my  coun- 
trymen could  command  its  daily  enjoyment ! — is 
indeed  a  native  -production ;  but  its  companion, 
plum-pudding,  exclusively  an  English  dish,  derives 
its  name  and  its  excellence  from  the  produce  of 
foreign  climates.  The  raisins  are  brought  from 
Smyrna,  the  currants  from  the  Ionian  Islands."* 

These  familiar  illustrations  have  heen  selected 
to  bring  the  fact  clearly  before  the  reader,  that  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  derive  enjoyment 
or  benefit  from  the  mutual  exchange  of  the  prod, 
ucts  of  different  countries  and  climates.  If  for- 
eign  trade  introduced  only  such  things  as  are  en- 
joyed by  the  opulent  and  luxurious  ;  if  it  only  en- 
abled our-  modern  Sybarites  to  clothe  themselves 
in  silks  instead  of  linens,  and  drink  French  wines 
instead  of  pure  water,  it  would  not  be  deserving  of 
the  high  place  it  ought  to  hold  in  our  esteem,  as 
the  means  of  adding  to  the  comfort  and  enjoyment 
of  mankind.  But  the  few  commodities  we  have 
mentioned  aboye  constitute  only  a  small  part  of 
those  imported  from  abroad,  which  are  used  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  people,  and  contribute  to  their 
subsistence,  or  give  additional  value  to  their  indus- 
try and  skill.  Without  foreign  commerce  we 
should  be  destitute  of  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  necessaries  and  comforts,  as  well  as  luxuries, 
which  we  now  possess  ;  while  the  price  of  the  few 
that  might  remain  to  us  would,  in  most  instances, 
be  very  greatly  increased.  Nor  are  the  benefits 
we  derive  from  an  extended  intercourse  with  the 
*  "  Political  Economy,"  by  T.  Hodgskin. 


226  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

other  branches  of  the  human  family  monopolized 
by  ourselves.  The  persons  who  receive  our  hard- 
ware, flour,  fish,  and  cotton,  in  exchange  for  their 
sugar,  silks,  drugs,  cutlery,  &.,  could  not  obtain 
these  necessary  and  valuable  articles  so  cheaply 
by  any  other  means.  "  It  is  as  pleasant,"  says  the 
English  writer  just  quoted,  "  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Portugal,  of  Turkey,  and  of  Spain,  to  procure,  by 
the  cultivation  of  their  own  vines,  fig-trees,  and 
olives,  the  instruments  and  clothing  manufactured 
in  this  country,  of  a  superior  quality,  by  help  of 
our  fertile  mineral  wealth  and  mechanical  ingenuity, 
as  it  is  for  us  to  obtain,  by  making  these  articles, 
the  refreshing  produce  of  a  brighter  sun  than  ever 
shines  over  Britain."* 

"But  the  influence  of  foreign  commerce,"  it  has 
been  well  observed,  "  in  multiplying  and  cheapen- 
ing conveniences  and  enjoyments,  vast  as  it  most 

*  Hodgskin's  Political  Economy,  p.  160.  Dr.  Chalmers,  in 
his  recent  work  on  Political  Economy,  among  many  other  para- 
doxes, has  attempted  to  prove  that  it  is  "  a  delusion"  to  suppose 
that  foreign  trade  adds  anything  to  the  wealth  of  a  nation,  or  is 
productive  of  any  advantage  "  beyond  a  slight  increase  of  en- 
joyment, the  substitution  of  one  luxury  for  another."  The 
wine-trade  he  has  discovered  only  produces  wine,  the  sugar- 
trade  sugar,  the  tea-trade  tea,  and  so  on.  It  is  evident  the  same 
argument  would  apply  to  our  internal  trade  and  commerce,  and 
to  the  division  of  labour  itself.  The  shoemaker  only  produces 
shoes,  the  clothier  cloth,  the  cutler  cutlery,  &c.  But,  just  as 
"  trifles  make  the  sum  of  human  things,"  so,  in  the  aggregate,  all 
the  several  branches  of  trade,  foreign  and  internal,  produce  all 
that  there  is  in  the  country  of  wealth,  comfort,  taste,  splendour, 
civilization  ;  all  that  distinguishes  us  from  a  horde  of  barbarians, 
clothed  in  skins,  and  tolerably  provided  with  coarse  food.  More- 
over, the  extension  of  commerce  reacts  upon  agriculture,  and 
tends  greatly  to  increase  the  production  of  food  likewise.  Dr. 
Chalmers  himself  admits  that  this  was  the  case  in  former  ages, 
and  his  reasons  for  considering  the  effect  to  have  ceased  are 
very  inconclusive. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  227 

certainly  is,  is  perhaps  inferior  to  its  indirect  in- 
fluence, that  is,  to  its  influence  on  industry,  by  in- 
spiring new  tastes,  and  stimulating  enterprise  and 
invention,  by  bringing  each  people  into  competition 
and  friendly  intercourse  with  foreigners,  and  ma- 
king them  acquainted  with  their  arts  and  institu- 
tions ?"  Adam  Smith  and  Robertson  have  both 
ably  traced  the  economic  change  which  took  place 
throughout  Europe  at  the  termination  of  the  mid- 
dle ages,  in  virtue  of  the  new  tastes. and  habits  in- 
spired in  the  owners  and  cultivators  of  the  soil  by 
the  presentation  to  their  notice  of  those  articles  of 
splendour  and  luxury  which  manufacturers  had 
produced  and  commerce  brought  to  their  doors. 
The  same  effect  continues  in  the  present  day.  It 
is  a  constant  principle  of  human  nature  that  our 
wants  increase  with  the  means  of  gratifying  them. 
And  well  is  it  that  we  are  so  constituted.  Were 
man  the  sober  and  easily  contented  being  that 
moralists  have  sometimes,  with  false  views  of  hu- 
man welfare,  attempted  to  make  him — did  a  mere 
shelter  from  the  weather,  and  -a  sufficiency  of 
wholesome  food  and  coarse  clothing  satisfy  his 
wishes, 

"  Content  to  dwell  in  decencies  for  ever," 
his  species  would  probably  have  remained  for  ever 
in  a  condition  little  superior  to  that  of  the  cattle 
they  have  domesticated.  Art,  science,  <  literature, 
all  the  pleasures  of  refinement,  taste,  and  intellect- 
ual occupation,  would  have  been  unknown  :  more 
than  this,  the  ingenuity  by  which  the  gifts  of  na- 
ture and  the  enjoyments  of  mere  animal  existence 
are  multiplied  and  heightened,  would  never  have 
been  called  into  action  ;  and  the  prospect  which? 


228  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

in  spite  of  local  and  temporary  checks,  seems  to 
us  continually  brightening,  of  a  progressive  and  in- 
definite amelioration  in  the  circumstances  of  man- 
kind, would  have  been  closed  at  once.  But  it  is 
not  so.  Every  augmentation  in  the  number  and 
variety  of  the  means  of  human  gratification  has  the 
certain  effect  of  increasing  the  number  of  human 
wants  and  desires,  and  of  stimulating  industry  and 
ingenuity  to  satisfy  them  by  increased  labour  or 
skill.  The  improvement  of  our  manufactures,  and 
the  increase  of  our  foreign  and  internal  trade,  have 
not  only  a  stimulating  influence  on  our  own  agri- 
culture, thus  adding  to  our  supplies  of  home-grown 
food,  but,  by  offering  novel  gratifications  to  the  in- 
habitants of  other  countries,  more  fertile  or  genial 
in  climate  than  our  own,  they  excite  them  to  great- 
er industry  in  the  creation  of  those  agricultural 
products  of  which  we  stand  in  need. 

These  several  productive  classes,xor  "interests," 
which  it  is  sometimes  the  fashion  to  oppose  and  con- 
trast with  each  other,  are  far  from  being  separated 
by  any  broad  line  of  demarcation.  They  are,  on 
the  contrary,  closely  entwined  and  enlaced  togeth- 
er, forming  the  warp  and  woof  in  the  web  of  soci- 
ety. Their  interests,  consequently,  are  identical ; 
and  any  attempt  to  advance  that  of  one  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  others,  must  be  equally  prejudicial  to 
all.  In  fact,  the  business  of  each  branch  is  to  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  the  others,  so  that  any  falling  off 
in  the  means  of  one  must  cause  a  proportionate  de- 
cline in  the  occupation  and  resources  of  the  others. 
The  agriculturists  raise  raw  produce  for  the  manu- 
facturers and  merchants,  while  the  latter  fabricate 
and  import  articles  of  necessity,  convenience,  and 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  229 

ornament  for  the  use  of  the  former.  Whatever, 
consequently,  contributes  to  promote  or  depress  the 
industry  and  enterprise  of  one  class,  must  have  a 
beneficial  or  injurious  influence  upon  the  others. 
"  Land  and  trade,"  to  borrow  the  just  and  forcible 
expressions  of  Sir  Josiah  Child,  "  are  TWINS,  and 
have  always,  and  ever  will,  wax  and  wane  together. 
It  cannot  be  ill  with  trade  but  land  will  fall,  nor  ill 
with  land  but  trade  will  feel  it."  Hence  the  inju- 
rious consequences  that  result  from  every  attempt 
to  exalt  and  advance  one  species  of  industry,  by  giv- 
ing it  factitious  advantages  at  the  expense  of  the 
rest. 

It  has  been  a  question  much  disputed  whether 
any  one  of  these  branches  of  industry  should  hold  a 
higher  rank  in  the  general  estimation  than  another. 
Many  writers  have  contended  for  the  pre-eminence 
of  agriculture  over  manufactures  and  commerce. 
M.  Quesnay  and  the  French  economists  were  fol- 
lowed in  this,  to  some  extent,  by  Dr.  Smith.  But 
the  reason  assigned  by  them  for  this  preference, 
namely,  that  in  agriculture  labour  is  most  produc- 
tive, as  being  exclusively  assisted  by  the  powers  of 
Nature,  is  an  evident  fallacy.  The  manufacturer 
and  the  merchant  avail  themselves  of  the  useful 
qualities  of  the  mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  king- 
doms to  the  same  extent  as  the  cultivator ;  and  Na- 
ture affords  her  aid  as  bountifully  and  as  gratuitous- 
ly to  the  one  as  to  the  other. 

Though  these  authors  have  failed  in  giving  a  sat- 
isfactory reason  for  the  rank  they  would  assign  to 
agriculture  above  the  other  useful  arts,  it  is  not, 
however,  the  less  true,  that  a  marked  preference  has 
been  awarded,  in  all  times  and  countries,  to  this 
U 


230  POLITICAL   ECONOMY* 

branch  of  industry ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  so  prevalent  a  feeling  can  have  its  origin  in 
fallacy.  A  little  reflection  will  enable  us  to  ac- 
count for  it.  The  true  source  of  the  peculiar  ven- 
eration in  which  agriculture  has  been  always  held, 
lies  partly  in  its  benignant  influence  on  the  health 
and  spirits  of  those  who  pursue  it,  and  yet  more  in 
the  consciousness  that  it  is  to  this  art  man  is  indebt- 
ed for  the  staff  of  life,  FOOD  ;  while  the  rest  serve 
only  to  minister  to  his  convenience  and  luxury,  or 
to  his  less  urgent  necessities.  However  important 
to  his  comfort  may  be  the  greater  number  of  objects 
which  commerce  and  manufactures  place  at  his  dis- 
posal, every  one  must  feel  that  he  is  yet  more  deep- 
ly indebted  to  that  art  which  furnishes  him  with  the 
main  support  of  his  existence,  without  which  he 
could  not  survive  the  day.  He  feels  that  he  could, 
spare  most  of  the  products  of  the  former  arts,  but 
not  of  the  latter.  Even  if  we  must  consider  this  a 
prejudice,  it  is  at  least  a  natural,  and  may  well  be  a 
general  one.  But  it  is  not  a  prejudice.  So  long 
as  there  are  thousands  of  our  fellow-creatures  in  any 
part  of  the  world  starving  for  want  of  necessaries', 
the  art  which  occupies  itself  in  supplying  them  will, 
in  the  estimation  of  every  friend  to  humanity,  bear 
the  palm  over  those  which  are  engaged  in  providing 
superfluities !  While  there  is  FAMINE  on  the  earth, 
every  man  of  human  feelings  will  desire  to  encour- 
age the  manufacture  of  corn  in  preference  to  that 
of  cottons,  silks,  or  muslins  ;  to  stimulate  the  pro- 
duction of  bread,  even  though  at  the  expense  of  toys 
and  trinkets. 

But  why  should  there  be  any  lack  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  ?  How  is  it  that  we  boast  of  the  mul- 
tiplied inventions  and  improvements  of  civilization 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  231 

as  having  armed  man  with  an  immense  increase  of 
productive  power,  if  it  be  true  that  they  have  not 
yet  enabled  him  to  procure  a  sufficiency  of  neces- 
saries for  the  bare  support  of  his  existence  ?  In  a 
condition  of  barbarism,  with  nothing  to  depend  on 
but  his  natural  resources,  his  existence  is  necessa- 
rily precarious  ;  hunger  and  misery  his  occasional, 
perhaps  frequent,  visitors.  But  every  step  that  he 
makes  in  knowledge  and  art,  in  the  improvement  of 
his  faculties  and  the  enlargement  of  his  resources, 
ought  to  remove  him  farther  and  farther  from  the 
reach  of  want.  And  it  would  be  strange,  indeed, 
if,  after  ages  spent  in  successive  victories  over  mat- 
ter, and  in  accumulating  the  means  of  yet  farther 
conquests ;  after  he  has  not  only  compelled  whole 
races  of  the  inferior  animals  to  his  service,  but 
taught  the  very  elements,  each  and  all,  to  do  his 
bidding,  with  superior  docility  and  far  greater  pow. 
er ;  when  invention  after  invention,  one  more  per- 
fect than  the  other,  have  multiplied  his  powers  of 
production  in  every  branch  of  industry  to  a  consid- 
erable, and,  in  some,  to  an  almost  incalculable  ex- 
tent, it  would  be  indeed  strange,  if,  in  spite  of  all 
this,  man  were  still  unable  to  escape  the  grasp  of 
want ;  still  incapable  of  procuring  a  full  sufficiency 
even  of  the  coarsest  necessaries  on  which  to  main- 
tain life. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing questions  of  political  economy.  Several  of  the 
discussions  to  which  it  leads  must  be  reserved  for  a 
future  volume.  The  remaining  chapter  of  this  vol- 
ume will  be  occupied  with  some  reflections  on  the 
condition  of  labourers  in  the  United  States,  and  on 
measures  which  have  been  proposed  for  their  ben- 
efit. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTER.* 


THE  CONDITION  OF  LABOURING  MEN  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

I.    THEIR  CLAIMS. 

THE  condition  of  those  classes  of  society  usual- 
ly, but  in  this  country  very  inaptly,  denominated  the 
Working  Classes,  presents  a  subject  for  profound 
and  anxious  consideration.  No  one  whose  sympa- 
thies are  with  man  rather  than  with  his  accidents, 
who  is  more  concerned  about  the  amount  of  hap- 
piness enjoyed  by  his  fellow-creatures  than  about 
their  rank,  can  look  with  indifference  on  that  which 
involves  emphatically  "  the  greatest  happiness  of 
the  greatest  number."  For  the  Christian  to  do  so 
would  be  flagrant  inconsistency.  It  is  the  glory  of 
his  religion  that  its  mission  is  "  to  the  poor."  Its 
promises  and  encouragements  belong  especially  to 
those  who  have  not  "  received  their  consolation" 
in  this  world.  While  it  never  ceases  to  plead  with 
others  in  their  behalf,  it  at  the  same  time  inculcates 
principles  which  will  enable  them  most  certainly  to 
maintain  and  advance  their  own  interests. 

The  people  of  this  country,  however,'are  urged 
to  attend  1,o  this  subject  by  something  which  is  apt 
to  be  more  powerful  than  charity.  It  is  regard  to 
their  own  safety.  With  us,  laws  are  but  emana- 
tions of  public  opinion,  and  public  opinion  is  little 
more  than  the  avowed  will,  for  the  time  being,  and, 

*  The  substance  of  this  chapter  was  contributed  two  or  three 
years  since  to  one  of  our  leading  periodicals  in  the  form  of  a  re^ 

U2 


234  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

however  elicited,  of  a  numerical  majority.  Now, 
though  we  abhor  the  doctrine  that  the  multitude 
are  essentially  depraved  and  sottish,  it  by  no  meana 
follows  that  we  are  bound  to  regard  them  as  infal- 
lible, or  as  beyond  the  reach  of  corruption.  He 
must  be  blind  to  the  light  of  all  history  who  does 
not  perceive  that  the  people  are  usually  what  their 
social,  political,  and  religious  institutions  make 
them.  If  their  training  is  in  an  atmosphere  of 
impurity ;  if  they  are  looked  upon  by  politicians 
as  mere  puppets,  to  be  moved  and  manoeuvred  for 
private  ends ;  if,  instead  of  being  purified  and  exalt, 
ed  by  religious  faith,  they  are  taught  to  regard  its 
restraints  with  indifference  or  contempt,  the  result 
is  not  doubtful.  The  retribution  which  they  will 
wreak  on  their  betrayers  and  on  themselves  will  be 
as  awful  as  just.  It  is,  to  our  minds,  the  darkest, 
and  among  the  most  incomprehensible  of  the  omens 
that  threaten  our  land,  that  the  more  opulent  and  fa- 
voured of  our  people  evince  so  little  solicitude  on 
this  point.  The  multitude  are  invested  with  a  con- 
trol over  life,  liberty,  and  property,  which  is  limit- 
ed by  nothing  but  their  own  pleasure,  or  by  paper 
barriers  which  they  can  prostrate  at  will ;  and  yet, 
in  order  to  accomplish  some  unworthy  purpose,  pol- 
iticians are  ready  (and  even  count  it  evidence  of 
skill)  to  inflame  their  passions  almost  to  madness, 
and  to  engender  or  encourage  the  most  vulgar  and 
virulent  prejudices.  On  the  other  hand,  not  a  few, 
even  in  this  land  of  democracy,  filled  with  compla- 
cent satisfaction  at  the  view  of  their  possessions, 
rarely  condescend  to  bestow  a  thought  on  the  great 
body  of  the  people,  appearing  to  think,  with  the  an- 
cient Fablier,  that  "  it  is  fit  that  noble  chevaliers 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  235 

should  enjoy  all  ease  and  taste  all  pleasure,  while 
the  labourer  toils  in  order  that  they  may  be  nour- 
ished in  abundance — they,  and  their  horses  and 
their  dogs." 

II.   UNEQUAL   DISTRIBUTION   OF   PROPERTY. 

We  do  not  propose  to  examine  this  subject,  at 
present,  in  all  its  bearings.  There  is  one  question 
about  which  republics  have  always  been  agitated, 
and  which,  to  most  of  them,  has  proved  the  too  pro- 
lific source  of  dissension  and  ruin  ;  we  mean  the 
distribution  of  property.  Without  instituting  prop- 
erty, and  securing  to  each  one,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  fruits  of  his  industry  and  foresight,  society  can 
make  little  progress  ;  and  yet,  in  giving  that  inter- 
est,  provisions  are  made  which  are  not  only  liable 
to  abuse,  but  which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  become, 
almost  invariably,  the  instruments  of  oppression. 
This  is  equally  the  case  whether  such  provisions 
emanate  from  the  whole  people,  or  only  from  the 
class  called  proprietors  or  capitalists.  In  the  laU 
ter  case,  forgetting  that  their  own  welfare  is  bound 
up  with  that  of  the  industrious  classes,  legislators 
are  apt  to  exonerate  themselves  from  public  bur- 
dens at  the  expense  of  the  labourer  ;  and  not  only 
so,  but  to  appropriate  the  revenue  thus  collected 
in  such  a  manner  as  still  farther  to  depress  indus- 
try. Witness  England,  which  taxes  enormously 
almost  every  article  of  subsistence  used  by  the  la- 
bouring population,  and  every  tenement  occupied 
by  a  tradesman ;  while  the  palace  of  the  nobleman, 
his  carriages,  wine,  servants,  probates,  &c.,  pay 
comparatively  nothing  ;*  collecting  millions  annu- 

*  Sir  Henry  Parnell  estimates  that  the  higher  classes  do  not 


236  POLITICAL   ECONOMY* 

ally  in  the  form  of  poor-rates,  and  then  dispensing 
them  so  as  to  discourage  industry,  paralyze  inde- 
pendence, and,  in  effect,  pay  a  bounty  on  pauper- 
ism. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  the  tenure  and  distribu- 
tion of  property  be  regulated  by  a  whole  people, 
and  the  door  is  thrown  open  for  a  different,  but 
scarcely  less  grievous  kind  of  oppression.  Burke 
has  well  said,  that  "  in  a  republican  government 
which  has  a  democratic  basis,  the  rich  require  an 
additional  security  above  what  is  necessary  to  them 

pay  mote  than  six  millions  out  of  fifty.  Mr.  Bulwer,  in  his 
"  England,"  &c.  (p.  187,  vol.  i.),  says  :  "  By  indisputable  calcu- 
lation, it  can  be  shown  that  every  working  man  is  now  taxed  to 
the  amount  of  one  third  of  his  weekly  wages  ;  supposing  the 
operative  is  to  obtain  twelve  shillings  a  week,  he  is  taxed,  there- 
fore, to  the  amount  of  four  shillings  per  week  ;  and  at  the  end  of 
six  years  (the  supposed  duration  of  Parliament),  he  will  conse- 
quently have  contributed  to  the  revenue,  from  his  poor  energies, 
the  almost  incredible  sum  of  621  3s."  By  a  calculation  in  the 
Metropolitan  for  July,  1833,  it  is  shown  that  a  citizen  of  London, 
having  an  income  of  200/.  a  year,  out  of  which  he  must  support 
himself,  wife,  three  children,  and  a  servant-maid,  would  have  to 
pay  above  80/.  of  it  to  government.  The  following  are  speci- 
mens of  the  manner  in  which  the  house  tax  is  assessed  : 


. 

A  shop  in  Regent-street,  21  feet  by  75,  own-  )    ,nn,     -fi?   1Q  . 

ed  and  occupied  by  a  tradesman       .        .,  f  " 
The  palace  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  prin-  "\ 

cipal  front  916  feet,  Corinthian  columns,  (    o0o     42    in 

saloon  paved  with  marble,  towers,  obelisks,  f 

parks,  &c.          ......  ) 

Blenheim,  owned  by  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  )    onn      AO     in 

with  a  park  of  2700  acres,  &c.,  &c.         .    J 

In  like  manner,  the  window-tax  is  so  adjusted,  that  the  rich, 
by  multiplying  the  windows  on  their  estates,  can  obtain  them 
at  about  one  third  the  rate  of  tax  paid  by  the  middle  and  poorer 
classes.  When  the  number  is  over  180,  the  charge  is  but  one 
and  sixpence  apiece.  Under  that  number,  it  is  at  an  average  of 
5*.  apiece. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  237 

in  monarchies.  They  are  subject  to  envy  ;  and, 
through  envy,  to  oppression."  Such  additional 
security,  however,  is  hardly  to  be  expected  from 
those  who  feel  this  envy,  and  who  may  hope,  by 
contracting  the  gains  of  others,  to  get  profit  to 
themselves.  Hence  the  fact,  that  in  the  history  of 
republics,  property,  in  order  to  protect  itself,  has 
been  so  often  compelled  to  appeal  from  the  laws 
to  bribery  and  corruption.  Regulations  lessening 
its  sacredness,  limiting  the  extent  to  which  it  might 
accumulate,  restricting  expenses,  partitioning  lands, 
bestowing  largesses,  have  ministered  successively 
to  an  all-grasping  and  unscrupulous  cupidity,  until, 
at  last,  all  other  sentiments  have  been  absorbed  in 
a  general  scramble  for  spoils.  Witness  Rome  in 
her  downward  career,  when  direct  and  studied  ap- 
peals were  made  to  the  poor  against  the  rich,  and 
the  possessions  of  the  latter  were  held  up  as  fit  ob- 
jects for  pillage.  "  From  that  time,"  says  the  his- 
torian, "  the  good  old  customs  and  regulations  fell 
gradually  into  disuse.  The  people  would  no  long- 
er obey ;  all  things  were  obtained  by  gold ;  no 
crime  in  war  seemed  disgraceful  if  profit  was  con- 
nected with  it.  Those  who  were  poor  and  with- 
out patrons  had  more  to  fear  from  th$  courts  of 
justice  than  opulent  criminals  ;  and  assassinations 
and  deaths  by  poison  became  common."*  Thus 
does  "  even-handed  justice  commend  the  ingredi- 
.ents  of  our  poisoned  chalice  to  our  own  lips." 
The  poor  begin  by  preying  upon  the  rich,  and  end 
by  being  their  victims. 

The  desire  for  property,  coupled,  as  it  too  often 

*  Von  Miiller,  Univ.  Hist.,  book  vi.,  sec.  19. 


238  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

is,  with  a  feeble  sense  of  justice,  prompts  men  to 
try,  in  the  language  of  Franklin, "  to  get  something 
for  nothing ;"  to  grasp  gains  without  paying  the 
prescribed    equivalent    of    labour   and    frugality. 
This  single  principle  will  explain  much  of  the  in. 
vidious  and  unequal  legislation  in  regard  to  prop- 
erty which  has  characterized  every  age  and  coun- 
try.    Under  -one   government  it  leads  to  guilds, 
corporations,  and  trading  companies,  which    are 
often  but  little  better  than  stupendous  monopolies, 
engrossing  for  a  favoured  few  all  the  profits  of  a 
lucrative  trade  or  an  important  craft.     In  another, 
the  same  passion  stimulates  the  people  to  perpetual 
changes  in  the  tenure  of  property ;  sets  aside  vest- 
ed rights  ;  pulls  down  one  branch  of  industry  to 
build  up  another  ;  passes  laws  under  pretence  of 
benefiting  the  poor,  but,  in  reality,  to  advance  the 
rich.     In  each  case  the  result  is  about  the  same. 
The  few  are  enriched  at  the  expense  of  the  many, 
and   by  similar  means.     The  demagogue  knows 
that  "  thrift  follows  fawning"  quite  as  well  as  the 
courtier.     Both  have  at  hand  the  plea  of  the  "  pub- 
lic good,"  and  both  take  occasion  to  smile  at  the 
eager  simplicity  with  which,  for  the  thousandth 
time,  the  bait  is  swallowed.     It  must,  however,  be 
admitted,  that  the  recipient  of  a  royal  charter  has 
some  advantages  over  the  self-styled  champion  of 
"equal  rights."     The  one  is  likely  to  enjoy  long 
and  securely  his  ill-gotten  gains  ;  the  other  often 
discovers,  when  too  late,  that  his  success  has  been 
his  destruction.     "  He  has  but  taught  bloody  in- 
structions, which,  being  taught,  return  to  plague 
the  inventor."     The  fate  of  Licinius,  among  the 
first  to  suffer  from  the  law  forbidding  the  accumq, 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  239 

lation  of  large  estates,  which  he  had  himself  pro- 
cured to  be  enacted,  should  teach  these  modern 
patriots  that  it  is  vastly  easier  to  raise  an  evil 
spirit  than  to  lay  it  again  ;  and  that  there  is  a 
marvellous  difference  between  being  a  martyr  to 
one's  principles,  or  rising  by  them  to  place  and 
power. 

How  to  prevent  the  evils  growing  out  of  these 
extreme  systems  of  legislation  has  long  been  a 
question.  Moses,  by  Divine  direction,  prescribed 
the  remission  of  debts  and  the  reversion  of  landed 
estates  at  certain  fixed  periods ;  measures  which, 
though  they  had  doubtless  other  and  higher  ends, 
contributed  also  to  equalize  property,  but  in  a 
manner  too  violent  for  any  except  a  temporary 
and  peculiar  dispensation.  Other  lawgivers,  such 
as  Solon  and  Servius  Tullius,  endowed  the  rich 
with  privileges,  but  imposed  on  them  more  than 
corresponding  burdens.  The  consequence,  how- 
ever, was,  that  society  was  broken  up  into  castes 
more  or  less  hereditary ;  which,  by  creating  a  per- 
manent distinction  between  rich  and  poor,  obstruct- 
ed that  free  and  healthy  movement  of  mind,  and  that 
cordial  co-operation  among  all  classes  so  necessa- 
ry to  the  utmost  improvement  of  a  people.  In  our 
own  country,  everything  like  hereditary  distinction 
or  privilege  has  been  abolished.  Property  can  be 
perpetuated  in  no  family  except  by  enterprise  and 
virtue ;  while  there  is  nothing  in  theory,  and  but 
little  in  the  practical  operation  of  our  laws,  to  pre- 
vent the  humblest  citizen  from  reaching  the  high- 
est eminence  of  wealth  or  power.  There  is  here 
no  class  of  rich  or  poor.  Through  improvidence 
and  vice,  the  children  of  the  opulent  are  perpetu- 


240  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

ally  descending  from  their  elevation,  to  learn,  in 
the  school  of  poverty,  the  necessity  of  diligence 
and  prudence ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  indi- 
gent and  unfriended  rise  to  occupy  their  places. 
In  such  a  state  of  things,  industry  and  thrift  cease 
to  be  derogatory ;  they  become  associated  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  with  merit ;  and,  strangely  .as 
it  may  sound  in  foreign  ears,  there  are  parts  of  this 
country  where  an  idler,  however  affluent,  could 
with  difficulty  maintain  his  place  in  society. 

Yet,  even  with  such  institutions,  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  escape  the  taint  of  imperfection  which 
cleaves  to  everything  human.  Evils  which  in  older 
countries  have  been  the  result  of  unequal  and  he- 
reditary privileges,  may  here  be  the  consequence 
of  the  action  of  the  popular  will.  One  instance  of 
this  we  have  in  the  system  of  taxation  which  is 
prevalent  among  us,  and  which  is,  in  some  respects, 
scarcely  less  exceptionable  than  that  which  prevails 
in  Great  Britain.  There  is  among  the  mass  of  the 
people  such  an  aversion  to  what  is  termed  direct 
taxation— that  is,  to  assessments  levied  directly  by 
the  government — and  so  much  difficulty  has  been 
experienced  both  in  imposing  and  in  collecting 
them,  that  our  rulers  have  been  but  too  ready  to 
resort  to  the  less  obnoxious  system  of  indirect  tax- 
ation ;  a  system  by  which  revenue  is  derived,  not 
from  property,  but  from  consumption,  and  that,  too, 
the  consumption  of  necessaries  rather  than  of  lux- 
uries. Thus,  as  in  England,  the  elegant  indul- 
gences of  the  rich  are  subjected  to  only  a  nominal 
tax,  while  the  provisions  used  by  a  labouring  man 
are  increased  in  cost  nearly  one  third  by  taxation 
and  monopoly :  so  in  this  country.  Imported  coal 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  241 

pays  a  duty  of  six  cents  per  bushel,  candles  of  from 
five  to  six  cents  per  pound,  iron  from  ten  to  twenty 
dollars  per  ton,  salt  ten  cents  per  bushel,  and  flour 
fifty  cents  on  the  100  pounds ;  while  coffee,  tea, 
dried  fruits,  and  spices  are  admitted  free,  and  wine 
and  silks  at  the  very  lowest  duties. 

This,  however,  is  far  from  being  the  sorest  evil 
under  which  we  suffer.  Of  the  disadvantages  in- 
cident to  a  popular  government,  perhaps  the  most 
serious  is  that  untiring  spirit  of  change  which  is 
apt  to  possess  the  people,  and  which  involves  in 
uncertainty  all  investments  of  capital,  and  almost 
every  description  of  industry.  Never  satisfied 
with  our  materials  of  happiness,  disappointed  in 
each  new  acquisition,  and  bent,  therefore,  on  farther 
experiments,  there  is  danger  lest  at  last  despair  take 
the  place  of  hope,  and  we  rush,  like  those  who  have 
gone  before  us,  from  the  extreme  of  licentiousness 
to  that  of  despotism.  From  this,  the  danger  of  all 
democratic  governments,  the  people  of  this  country 
are  not  free.  We  have  compassed,  it  is  thought, 
the  most  distinguished  blessings  by  departing  from 
the  institutions  of  the  Old  World ;  and  the  too  hasty 
conclusion  is,  that  the  farther  we  carry  this  depart- 
ure, the  nearer  we  shall  approach  the  perfection  of 
the  social  state.  And  this  feeling  is  sedulously 
cherished  by  many  who  would  call  themselves 
statesmen.  Whoever  pants  for  office  finds  his 
account  here  in  evoking  the  spirit  of  discontent. 
Things,  he  assures  us,  must  not  remain  as  they  are, 
or  the  country  is  ruined.  Golden  visions  are  held 
up  before  all  who  will  go  for  the  putting  down  of  a 
party  or  the  repeal  of  a  measure.  Some  policy  to 
which  the  country  has  barely  had  time  to  conform 
X 


242  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

itself,  which  has  given  a  new  direction  to  millions 
of  capital,  and  to  vast  amounts  of  talent  and  enter- 
prise, and  from  which  we  are  just  about  to  reap 
abundant  returns,  all  must  be  prostrated,  that  some 
new  reformer  may  mount  into  power. 

Lower  down,  but  not  less  active  in  the  work  of 
agitation,  is  another  class  of  politicians,  for  whom 
it  seems  to  have  been  reserved  to  disclose  to  our  ar- 
tisans and  labouring  population  the  astounding  fact 
that  they  are  already  ground  down  by  oppression. 
They  can  talk  of  nothing  but  the  social  and  politi- 
cal degradation  of  their  brother- workmen,  the  enor- 
mous profits  of  the  capitalist,  and  the  growing 
aristocracy  of  wealth ;  while  they  insist  upon  a 
new  principle  of  division,  by  which  the  labourer  is 
to  share  in  the  gains  of  trade,  without  sharing  ei- 
ther in  its  hazards  or  its  losses.*  With  such  men, 

*  That  this  is  no  exaggeration  of  the  doctrines  now  industri- 
ously spread  among  the  labouring  population  of  our  country  as 
well  as  of  England,  will  be  obvious  to  all  who  have  observed  the 
proceedings  and  publications  of  Trades'  Unions.  As  an  exam* 
pie,  take  the  following  from  the  Preamble  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  Trades'  Union  of  the  city  and  county  of  Philadelphia. 
"  It  is  an  incontrovertible  truth,  that  those  who  do  not  labour  to 
produce  are  supported  by  those  who  do,  and  it  is  therefore  obvious 
that  those  who  are  thus  supported,  will  and  do,  through  the 
impulse  of  self-interest,  endeavour  by  every  possible  means  to 
decrease  the  just  demands  of  the  manufacturer  arid  producer." 
It  should  be  understood,  that  by  "  producer,"  and  "  those  who 
labour  to  produce,"  is  meant  those  only  who  are  engaged  in 
manual  labour  ;  so  that  merchants,  tradesmen,  bankers,  magis- 
trates, lawyers,  physicians,  dec.,  as  well  as  mere  "  capitalists," 
are  "  supported"  by  the  labouring  class,  and  are  "  endeavour- 
ing, by  every  possible  means,  to  decrease  the  just  demands  of 
the  producer  !"  It  is  constantly  affirmed,  and,  we  doubt  not, 
believed  by  these  men,  that  they  "  are  the  producers  of  all 
wealth ;"  that "  the  capital  of  those  who  employ  them  would  be 
a  dead  weight  without  their  labour  ;"  and  that  to  them,  there- 
fore, belong  the  principal  share  of  what  are  now  the  profits  of 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  243 

equal  rights  mean,  not  an  equal  title  to  the  protec- 
tion of  law  ;  not  equality  of  privilege,  but  equality 
of  condition.  It  is  said  that  the  champions  of 
equality  in  France,  when  they  undertook  to  carry 
out  their  principles  in  the  reconstruction  of  the 
government,  commenced  by  causing  the  kingdom 
to  be  resurveyed,  and  divided  into  square  depart- 
ments of  exactly  the  same  size.  It  was  not  to  be 
reconciled  with  their  notions  of  equality  that  there 
should  be  one  province  or  one  commune  geomet- 
rically larger  than  another.  So  with  these  philos- 
ophers. A  foot  rule  and  a  little  arithmetic  would, 
in  their  estimation,  suffice  to  adjust  the  most  con- 
flicting claims,  and  the  nicest  problems  in  Political 
Economy. 

III.    INEQUALITY   UNAVOIDABLE. 

But  if  these  men  really  hope  to  banish  inequali- 
ty from  civil  society,  they  would  do  well  to  begin 
by  eradicating  it  from  the  constitution  of  Nature 
and  the  dealings  of  Providence.  So  long  as  the 
natural  endowments  of  man  are  unequal,  so  long 
it  will  need  more  than  the  skill  of  a  Marat  or  a 
Robespierre  to  equalize  their  condition.  Society 
may  resolve  itself  into  its  original  elements.  It 
may  forego  all  the  blessings  of  civilization.  It 
may  bring  back  the  boasted  simplicity  and  free- 
dom of  patriarchal  times  :  and  what  then  ?  Why, 
we  should  find  ourselves  as  far  as  ever  from  any 
practical  equality.  The  wiliest  and  strongest — 
the  best  hunter  and  the  bravest  warrior — would 
soon  lord  it  over  the  rest.  One  portion,  from  hap. 

the  employer.  It  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  them,  that  without 
thejr  employers'  capital  there  would  be  DO  demand  for  labour. 


244  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

py  talents  or  happy  circumstances,  would  rise  to 
the  top,  another  sink  like  dregs  to  the  bottom.  The 
history  of  every  savage  tribe  proclaims  that  cor- 
poreal  or  mental  superiority  always  confers  an  as- 
cendancy  on  its  possessor  ;  and  that,  despite  the 
theories  of  a  pseudo-philosophy,  the  most  untutored 
mind  will  own  and  respect  it. 

It  may  be,  however,  that,  in  order  to  retain  the 
blessings  of  civilization  without  its  inconveniences 
(if  inconveniences  they  may  be  called),  these  re- 
formers would  merge  the  individual  in  the  mass, 
and  renew  the  experiment  so  often  exploded  of  a 
community  of  goods.  And  what  has  been  the  his- 
tory of  these  associations  ?  We  have  had  them, 
in  every  gradation  and  of  every  phase,  from  the 
republic  of  Lycurgus  to  the  Nouveau  Christian- 
isme  of  the  Count  de  St.  Simon.  We  have  had 
them  springing  from,  and  pervaded  by,  every  spe- 
cies of  enthusiasm :  political,  philosophical,  and 
religious.  We  have  had  them  administered  by 
the  wisest  men,  and  according  to  the  most  artifi- 
cial rules  ;  where  all  communication  with  the  rest 
of  the  world  has  been  proscribed,  and  children 
have  been  taught,  from  their  earliest  infancy,  to- 
sacrifice  the  feelings  of  nature  to  the  claims  of  the 
community.  What  has  been  the  result?  They 
have  been  able  to  exist  at  all  only  within  small 
limits,  and  then  only  by  weakening  or  sundering 
family  ties ;  by  renouncing  the  use  of  money,  and 
the  pursuits  of  commerce  and  letters ;  and  by 
causing  the  individual  to  lose  sight  of  his  own  high 
welfare  in  sustaining  and  extending  the  communi- 
ty.* Their  boasted  equality,  as  far  as  we  can  dis- 

*  In  this  remark  we  except,  of  course,  the  community  of 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  245 

cover,  has  been  an  equality  of  servitude,  where 
some  John  of  Leyden  or  Owen  of  Lanark  has 
wielded  an  undisputed,  and,  too  often,  a  sordid  su- 
premacy. Look,  for  example,  at  the  Reductions 
of  Paraguay,  where  the  Jesuits  professed  to  have 
realized  the  fair  idea  of  a  Christian  commonwealth, 
and  of  which  the  Abbe  Raynal  says,  c'est  la  seule 
societe  sur  la  terre  ou  les  hommes  aientjoui  de  cette 
egalite,  que  est  le  second  des  liens ;  car  la  liberte 
est  le  premier.  Historians  inform  us,  that  this 
equality  was  little  better  than  a  dead  level  of  ser- 
vitude, which  kept  the  inhabitants  without  progress 
in  the  lowest  state  of  civilization ;  that  the  society 
evidently  aimed  at  the  establishment  of  an  inde- 
pendent empire,  which  might  ultimately  extend  its 
dominion  over  all  the  southern  continent  of  Amer- 
ica ;  and  that,  to  this  end,  they  cut  off  all  inter- 
course between  their  subjects  and  surrounding  na- 
tions, permitting  them  to  have  no  conversation 
with  any  foreign  trader  or  functionary,  nor  even  to 
be  in  the  same  apartment  with  them  without  the 
presence  of  a  Jesuit.  Look  at  the  Anabaptists  of 
Munster,  who  in  the  sixteenth  century  filled  all 
Europe  with  alarm  by  their  fanatical  opinions  con- 
cerning property  and  religion.  By  dint  of  visions 
and  prophecies,  this  people  were  induced  to  consti- 
tute their  leader  King  of  Sion,  to  clothe  him  with 
supreme  power,  and  offer  him  the  most  abject  hom- 
age ;  and  they  then  "  launched,  by  his  direction,  into 

goods  mentioned  Acts  iv.,  32.  That  appears  to  have  been  a 
voluntary  arrangement,  entered  into  from  considerations  purely 
religious,  by  a  small  and  proscribed  body ;  not  intended  to  in- 
terfere with  their  duties  as  citizens ;  confined  to  Jerusalem ; 
never  enjoined  even  upon  the  Christians  of  that  church,  and 
continued  by  them  for  only  a  short  time. 
X2 


246  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

every  excess  of  which  the  passions  of  men  are  ca. 
pable,  when  restrained  neither  by  the  authority  of 
laws  nor  the  sense  of  decency."*  Even  in  Sparta, 
where  this  principle  of  common  property  was  only 
partially  introduced,  and  where  we  have  the  most 
wonderful  example  ever  yet  seen  of  the  triumph 
of  political  institutions  over  the  instinct  of  the  hu- 
man heart,  to  what  did  its  boasted  equality  amount  ? 
Let  the  condition  of  the  Helots  answer ;  and  the 
fact  that,  in  the  course  of  time,  all  the  landed  prop- 
erty in  the  republic  was  engrossed  by  a  few  indi. 
viduals,  of  whom  two  fifths  were  women.  The 
genius  of  this  memorable  and  too  often  lauded  con- 
stitution has  been  well,  though  somewhat  paradox- 
ically, described  by  Montesquieu  :  "  Lycurgus,  by 
blending  theft  with  the  spirit  of  justice,  the  hardest 
servitude  with  excess  of  liberty,  the  most  rigid 
sentiments  with  the  greatest  moderation,  gave  sta- 
bility to  his  city.  He  seemed  to  deprive  her  of  all 
her  resources,  such  as  arts?  commerce,  money, 
walls  :  ambition  prevailed  among  the  citizens 
without  improving  their  fortune :  they  had  natu- 
ral sentiments  without  the  tie  of  a  son,  husband,  or 
father  ;  and  chastity  was  stripped  even  of  modesty 
and  shame." 

We  do  not  suppose,  however,  that  there  are 
many  politicians  who  seriously  contemplate  taking 
to  pieces  the  institutions  of  property  in  order  to 
reconstruct  them  on  the  basis  of  a  metaphysical 
equality.  What  such  men  too  frequently  seek  is 
not  equality,  at  least  for  themselves.  They  seek 
rather  some  convulsion  which  shall  heave  them 
above  the  surrounding  mass  ;  and,  well  aware  that 
*  See  Robertson's  Charles  V. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  247 

there  are  in  every  community  elements  of  discord 
and  discontent,  and  that  it  needs  but  malignity  and 
assurance  to  stir  them  up,  their  province  is  to  agi- 
tate. With  such  spirits  it  would  seem  idle  to  rea- 
son except  through  their  fears  ;  and  for  them  there 
is  abundant  occasion  for  fear.  History  ought  not 
to  have  recorded  the  fate  of  their  prototypes  in 
vain.  They  have  to  consult  that  great  Teacher 
but  a  moment,  and  they  will  find  that  agitation  is 
a  game  at  which  more  than  one  can  play ;  and 
that  the  first  to  stake  is  not  always  the  last  to  win. 
We  should  like  to  know  how  many  great  anar- 
chists have  died  peaceably  in  their  beds,  or  have 
kept  masters  of  the  field  to  the  end.  There  are 
always  hardier  and  more  desperate  spirits  to  catch 
the  latest  pressure  of  the  times  ;  to  purchase  pop- 
ular favour  by  outstripping  all  who  have  gone  be- 
fore them,  in  the  impudence  of  their  pretensions 
and  the  atrocity  of  their  measures.  Girondists, 
Brissotines,  Jacobins,  Terrorists  —  these  are  al- 
ways ready  to  chase  each  other  from  the  stage, 
like  spectres  in  a  dream,  until,  drunk  with  carnage 
and  tired  of  revolution,  the  people  welcome  the  re- 
pose of  despotism. 

But  if  professed  agitators  are  beyond  the  reach 
of  appeals  higher  than  these,  it  is  not  so,  we  trust, 
with  the  multitude  they  flatter,  nor  with  the  hon- 
est but  too  visionary  statesmen  who,  unable  as  yet 
to  find  their  beau  ideal  of  a  well- governed  state,  al- 
ways hope  something  from  change.  Can  they  for- 
get that  professions  of  exclusive  regard  for  the 
people  are  the  old  and  standing  pretexts  of  those 
who  would  rule  or  ruin  1  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods" 
was  the  promise  of  the  arch-deceiver  when  he 


248  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

would  thwart  the  purposes  of  Heaven  by  betraying 
a  world.  And  what  now,  in  every  nine  out  of  ten 
cases,  are  patriotic  promises  and  protestations  but 
the  cloak  under  which  the  demagogue  prosecutes 
his  private  purposes  1  What  are  the  people  to 
gain  by  perpetual  changes  in  the  distribution  of 
property,  and  in  the  relations  between  capital  and 
industry  ?  Does  not  law  derive  its  chief  value  from 
being  known  and  established  ?  Does  not  all  expe- 
rience prove,  that  where  change  is  ever  going  on,  it 
is  at  the  instigation  of  an  interested  few  ;  that  the 
body  of  the  people  are  allowed  to  understand  little 
either  of  its  progress  or  objects  ?  "  Your  dema- 
gogues," said  Demosthenes,  in  his  Oration  against 
Timocrates,  "  your  demagogues,  citizen  judges, 
would  make  new  laws,  solely  for  their  own  conve- 
nience, almost  every  month :  if  you  do  not  punish 
them,  the  people  at  large  will  soon  be  enslaved  by 
these  wild  beasts."  If  such  was  the  case  in  a  re- 
public, the  citizens  of  which  were  sworn  never  to 
acquiesce  in  any  division  of  property  destructive 
of  private  rights,  and  where  it  was  a  maxim  "  that 
we  ought  to  maintain  the  laws  of  our  country,  and 
respect  them  as  certain  secondary  divinities  ;"* 
what  may  we  not  apprehend  where  reform  is  the 
great  watchword,  the  catholicon  to  be  applied, 
without  measure  or  discrimination,  to  all  political 
maladies  whatever  ?f  The  inevitable  effect  must 

*  Stobseus,  Serm.  xxxviii.,  p.  229. 

t  Bacon,  who  lived  in  the  age  of  reformation  in  religion,  and 
was  himself  a  great  reformer  in  philosophy,  yet  says  of  "  new 
experiments  in  the  political  body :"  *'  It  is  improper  to  try  them, 
unless  the  necessity  be  urgent  or  the  utility  evident.  Great 
care  must  be  taken  that  the  desire  of  reformation  may  occasion 
the  change,  and  not  the  desire  of  the  change  plead  for  the  refor- 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  249 

be  to  lessen  the  security  of  property,  discourage 
enterprise,  and  keep  out  capital.  On  this  point, 
let  the  sage  of  radicalism  himself  be  heard  :  "  It  is 
the  security  of  property,"  says  Bentham, "  that  has 
overcome  the  natural  aversion  of  man  from  labour, 
that  has  given  him  the  empire  of  the  earth,  that 
has  given  aim  a  fixed  and  permanent  residence, 
that  has  implanted  in  his  breast  the  love  of  country 
and  of  posterity.  To  enjoy  immediately — to  en- 
joy without  labour — is  the  natural  inclination  of 
every  man.  This  inclination  must  be  restrained ; 
for  its  obvious  tendency  is  to  arm  all  those  wJio 
have  nothing  against  those  who  have  something.* 

mation.  Again,  let  all  novelty,  though  it  cannot,  perhaps, be  re- 
jected, yet  be  held  suspected.  And  lastly,  as  the  Scripture  di- 
rects, let  us  stand  upon  the  old  paths,  and  see  and  ask  for  the 
good  way,  and  walk  therein."  See  Essays,  XI.  So  also  Aris- 
totle :  "  Slight  imperfections,"  says  the  Stagirite,  "  therefore, 
whether  in  the  laws  themselves,  or  in  those  who  administer  and 
execute  the  laws,  ought  always  to  be  overlooked,  because  they 
cannot  be  corrected  without  occasioning  a  much  greater  mis- 
chief, and  tending  to  weaken  that  reverence  which  the  safety  of 
all  governments  requires  that  the  citizens  at  large  should  enter- 
tain, cultivate,  and  cherish  for  the  hereditary  institutions  of  their 
country.  The  comparison  drawn  from  the  improvement  of  the 
arts  does  not  apply  to  the  amendment  of  laws.  To  change  or 
improve  an  art,  and  to  alter  or  amend  a  law,  are  things  as  dis- 
similar in  their  operation  as  different  in  their  tendency;  for 
laws  operate  as  practical  principles  of  moral  action ;  and,  like 
all  the  rules  of  morality,  derive  their  force  and  efficacy,  as  even 
the  name  imports,  from  the  customary  repetition  of  habitual 
acts ;  and  the  slow  operation  of  the  laws  therefore  tends  to 
subvert  that  authority  on  which  the  persuasive  energy  of  all 
laws  is  founded ;  to  abridge,  weaken,  and  destroy  the  power  of 
law  itself." — Aristot.,  Pol.,  b.  ii. 

*  In  the  last  report  of  the  Directors  of  the  Connecticut  State 
Prison,  the  chaplain  states  that  "  thieves  and  robbers,  the  most 
hardened  and  dangerous,  frequently  attempt  to  justify  their  do- 
ings on  the  ground  that  one  man  has  no  right  to  hold  more  prop- 
erty than  another  ;  and  when  they  steal  and  rob,  they  mean  to 
take  from  the  rich  only,  and  thus  equalize  what,  before,  was 
unjustly  unequal" 


250  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

The  law  which  restrains  this  inclination,  and  which 
secures  to  every  individual  the  quiet  enjoyment  of 
his  industry,  is  the  most  splendid  achievement  of 
legislative  wisdom — the  noblest  triumph  of  which 
humanity  has  to  boast." 

The  truth  is  deeply  impressed,  we  would  hope, 
on  the  minds  of  the  American  people.  They  all 
either  possess,  or  hope  to  acquire  property ;  and 
they  can  hardly  fail  to  see,  that  whatever  tends  to 
lessen  its  security,  must  in  the  end  operate  to  their 
own  injury.  There  is  one  circumstance,  however, 
which  may  well  awaken  alarm :  it  is  the  assiduity 
with  which  the  press  and  rival  politicians  appeal  to 
the  vulgar  jealousies  of  the  poor,  and  the  eagerness 
with  which  they  seize  every  opportunity  of  fasten* 
ing  on  their  opponents  the  stigma  of  being  rich. 
No  terms  seem  fraught  with  more  political  reproach 
than  those  which  indicate  that  their  object  is  the 
proprietor  of  large  estates.  Once  property  might 
have  rendered  its  possessor  an  object  of  jealousy, 
because  it  conferred  exclusive  political  privileges. 
But,  now  that  the  right  of  suffrage  has  been  ex- 
tended to  all,  wealth  seems  to  be  growing  odious. 
We  are  far  from  being  advocates  of  great  or  per- 
nianent  inequalities  in  the  distribution  of  property. 
They  are  prejudicial  alike  to  the  indigent  and  the 
affluent ;  exposing  the  one  to  the  temptations  of 
want  and  dependance,  and  the  other  to  that  haugta 
ty  spirit  which  goeth  before  a  fall.  But  such  ine, 
qualities  ought  to  be  redressed,  not  by  bringing  down 
the  rich,  but  by  lifting  up  the  poor.  Let  the  poor 
be  endowed  with  an  intelligence  and  moral  worth 
which  will  enable  them  to  work  their  own  way.  If 
the  rich  are  disposed  to  be  exacting  or  oppressive^ 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  251 

correct  the  evil,  not  by  surrendering  their  posses* 
sions  to  plunder  under  colour  of  law,  but  by  inspi- 
ring them  with  a  larger  justice  and  humanity,  and 
especially  by  teaching  them  (what  they  are  too 
ready  to  forget)  that  their  own  interests  are  indis- 
solubly  united  with  those  of  the  labouring  classes. 

IV.    COMBINATIONS   OF   LABOURING   MEN. 

There  is  another  fact  which  may  well  inspire 
solicitude*  It  is  the  existence,  throughout  our 
cities  and  larger  towns,  of  combinations,  profess- 
ing to  aim  at  the  correction  of  grievances  sustained 
by  the  labouring  population,  and  proposing  to  effect 
this,  not  so  much  by  legislation,  as  through  a  sys* 
tern  of  joint  and  wide-spread  agitation.  Capital 
and  labour  are,  among  farmers,  substantially  in 
the  same  hands ;  and  it  is  felt  that  both  alike  need 
encouragement  and  protection*  In  the  country, 
too,  men  are  likely  to  find  their  proper  level,  and* 
aware  of  this,  as  well  as  of  the  difficulty  of  arran* 
ging  and  maintaining  an  active  confederacy  among 
a  sparse  population,  they  rarely  make  the  attempt 
except  on  great  emergencies.  In  populous  places 
it  is  otherwise.  The  division  of  employments  is 
here  carried  to  such  an  extent,  that,  while  one  class 
supply  only  capital,  another  contribute  only  labour. 
These  classes  come  together  too  often  as  com- 
petitors. They  come,  too,  from  opposite  extremes 
of  the  social  scale,  and  under  circumstances  calcu- 
lated to  inflame,  in  the  minds  of  the  less  favoured, 
a  painful  sense  of  inferiority.  When  to  this  we 
add  the  real  grievances  to  which  the  poor  are  sub- 
jected by  the  arrogance  of  the  rich,  by  their  re- 
missness  in  discharging  their  obligations,  and  their 


252  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

abuse  of  the  power  which  results  from  their  situa* 
tion,  we  cannot  wonder  that  a  great  city  should 
become  the  focus  of  discontent.  Besides  occasion 
for  confederacies,  it  furnishes,  in  the  density  and 
clannish  character  of  its  population,  and  in  the 
presence  of  factious  and  desperate  men,  who  make 
a  trade  of  agitation,  tempting  facilities  for  orga- 
nizing them. 

These  facilities  have  not  been  neglected.  Asso- 
ciations^  called  Trades'  Unions,  have  been  formed 
in  every  considerable  town  in  the  United  States ; 
and  they  threaten,  in  connexion  with  other  causes^ 
to  bring  on  that  struggle  which  has  been  so  often 
seen  in  other  countries,  and  which,  to  the  impartial 
observer,  must  seem  alike  unnatural  and  ruinous— 
the  struggle  between  labour  and  capital.  Indica- 
tions of  it  are  apparent  in  the  "  strikes"  which  mul- 
tiplied so  rapidly  a  few  years  since,  and  in  the 
scenes  of  violence  with  which  they  were  generally 
attended.  That  these  attempts  to  control  the  mar- 
ket  of  labour  must,  however  well  organized,  ulti- 
mately prove  fruitless*  is  evident,  one  would  think, 
at  this  time,  when  men  who,  in  1834,  resolved 
that  wages  should  never  be  reduced  below  the  rate 
then  paid,*  are  glad  to  obtain  employment  on  al- 
most any  terms.  It  may  be  thought,  too,  that  con- 
vulsions in  trade,  like  those  through  which  we  have 
just  passed,  must  dissolve  these  societies,  or  leave 
nothing  to  be  apprehended  from  their  future  efforts. 
They  who  suppose  so,  however,  know  little  of  the 
virulence  of  that  disease  which  preys  on  the  body 
politic,  and  which  has  so  often  proved  the  immedi- 

*  At  the  General  Convention  of  Trades'  Unions  held  in  the 
city  of  New-York. 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  253 

calile  vulnus.  The  dissatisfaction  of  the  ignorant 
poor,  and  the  machinations  of  those  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  foster  it,  are  never  more  rife,  though 
less  observed,  than  at  such  seasons.  The  orga- 
nization, too,  of  which  we  are  speaking,  is  pre- 
served, and  its  doctrines  are  disseminated  with  in- 
defatigable industry  and  through  a  multitude  of 
channels.  It  will  be  well  if  the  effect  of  these 
and  other  causes  is  not  seen  in  a  growing  aliena- 
tion between  the  two  great  classes  that  compose 
the  population  of  our  cities  and  manufacturing 
towns.  Of  all  things,  such  an  alienation  is  most 
to  be  deprecated.  To  counteract  the  tendency 
to  it  which  is  now  but  too  evident,  there  must  be 
a  higher  tone  of  intellectual  and  moral  instruction 
among  all  classes  of  our  people.  Those  who  have 
property,  and  would  preserve  it,  must  put  forth  spe- 
cial efforts  to  redress  the  real  grievances  of  work- 
men, and  to  convince  them  that,  between  their 
rights  and  interest  and  those  of  their  employers, 
there  is  not  only  no  actual  variance,  but  the  utmost 
harmony  and  identity. 

In  undertaking  to  examine  the  nature  and  claims 
of  Trades'  Unions,  and  of  other  similar  combina- 
tions, we  would  guard  against  misapprehension. 
We  have  been  drawn  to  this  task  by  no  desire  to 
prejudge  the  controversy  in  which  they  are  en- 
gaged. So  far  as  we  had  at  the  outset  any  predi- 
lections, they  were  favourable.  Perceiving  that 
the  number  of  mechanics  and  labouring  men  was 
rapidly  increasing  in  our  country  ;  that  they  were 
exposed  to  many  trying  temptations  ;  that  on  their 
virtue  and  intelligence  depended  the  well-being  of 
our  towns,  and  that  they  imbodied  a  large  share 
Y 


254  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

of  the  active  talent  and  political  influence  of  the 
time,  we  had  conceived  a  lively  interest  in  their 
welfare.  We  had  been  especially  anxious  to  see 
societies  for  mutual  improvement  formed  among 
them  ;  and  when  we  heard  that,  in  England,  socie- 
ties had  long  existed  in  the  several  trades  which 
were  in  the  course  of  being  transplanted  to  Amer- 
ica, we  hoped  that  they  might  prove  powerful  in- 
struments for  this  purpose.  That  we  might  judge 
fairly  of  their  structure  and  tendency,  we  went  for 
information,  not  to  the  publications  of  their  adver- 
saries, but  to  documents  which  they  had  put  forth 
in  their  own  name ;  to  the  proceedings  of  their 
Unions  and  Conventions,  and  the  files  of  their 
newspapers.  Having  derived  our  facts  from  such 
unquestionable  sources,  the  conclusions  to  which 
we  may  arrive  can  be  erroneous  only  through 
some  fallacy  in  our  reasoning.  Should  such  fal- 
lacy escape  us,  we  may  trust  that  it  will  not  escape 
our  readers. 

It  may  be  proper  to  say  a  word  here  of  the  his- 
tory of  these  associations. 

"  The  most  ancient  examples,"  says  Mr.  Wade, 
in  his  History  of  the  Middle  and  Working  Classes, 
"  of  the  Unions  of  workmen,  were  the  trading 
guilds  or  fraternities,  remains  of  which  still  exist 
in  many  of  the  principal  towns  of  England  and  on 
the  Continent.  Traces  of  these  societies  may  be 
found  under  the  Roman  emperors,  and  during  the 
times  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  when  they  formed  a 
separate  and  favoured  portion  of  the  community, 
possessing  exclusive  grants  and  immunities.  Com- 
binations, in  the  modern  sense,  of  workmen  against 
their  employers,  could  have  no  place  in  these  asso- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  255 

ciations  ;  each  constituted  a  distinct  incorporation 
of  all  those  engaged  in  the  same  mystery  or  occu- 
pation ;  they  were  governed  by  by-laws,  which 
regulated  the  taking  of  apprentices,  the  admission 
of  new  members,  the  prices  of  their  manufactories, 
&c. :  in  short,  they  performed  all  those  functions 
in  common  that  are  now  performed  separately  by 
masters  and  journeymen ;  and  the  only  combina- 
tion that  existed  was  that  formed  by  the  union  of 
both  against  the  community.  The  monopoly  thus 
established  against  the  public  was  the  cause  of 
their  downfall,  and  at  an  early  period  made  them 
an  object  of  legislative  enactment.  In  the  1st  Stat. 
9  Edw.  III.,  it  is  declared  that  the  franchises  of 
guilds  are  *  prejudicial  to  the  king,  prelates,  and 
great  men,  and  oppressive  to  the  commons.'  By 
the  gradual  abridgment  of  their  privileges  they 
lost  their  municipal  government :  stranger  work- 
men were  introduced  into  the  trades,  who  did  not 
acknowledge  the  authority  of  masters  and  ward- 
ens ;  and,  finally,  the  fraternities  resolved  into  the 
great  and  independent  divisions  of  masters  and 
journeymen ;  the  former  finding  the  capital,  the 
latter  the  labour  for  their  co-operative  industry. 
From  this  transition  may  be  derived  the  first  origin 
of  Trades'  Unions  for  the  express  purpose  of  keep- 
ing up  the  rate  of  wages." 

The  earliest  notice  which  we  have  of  workmen 
combining  in  England  is  in  the  year  1548,  when 
an  act  of  Parliament  (2d  and  3d  Edw.  VI.,  c.  15) 
states  in  its  preamble  that  "  artificers,  handicrafts- 
men, and  labourers  have  made  confederacies  and 
promises,  and  have  sworn  mutual  oaths,  not  only 
that  they  should  not  intermeddle  with  one  anoth- 


256  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

er's  work,  and  perform  and  finish  that  another  hath 
begun  ;  but  also  to  constitute  and  appoint  how 
much  work  they  shall  do  in  a  day,  and  what  hours 
and  times  they  shall  work,  contrary  to  the  laws 
and  statutes  of  this  realm,  and  to  the  great  hurt  and 
empoverishment  of  his  majesty's  subjects."  Sub- 
sequently these  combinations  undertook  to  dictate, 
not  only  where  workmen  should  engage,  and  how 
long  they  should  work  daily,  but  also  what  wages 
should  be  paid  ;  and  from  the  year  above  men- 
tioned down  to  1824,  laws  were  frequently  passed 
to  protect  employers  against  them.  These  laws, 
however,  proved,  as  in  such  cases  they  usually  do, 
nearly  powerless,  prosecutions  under  them  serving 
to  exasperate  rather  than  to  deter ;  and  in  1824  they 
were  all  repealed,  and  an  act  substituted  to  pre- 
vent the  use  of  violence  by  such  combinations,  and 
protect  independent  workmen.  From  the  evidence 
taken  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Com. 
mons  in  1824,  it  appears  that  all  the  trades  in  Lon- 
don were  at  that  time  in  some  degree  organized  ; 
and  that  through  the  kingdom,  especially  in  the 
manufacturing  districts,  associations  were  in  ac- 
tive  operation.  By  their  agency  in  Manchester, 
not  less  than  15,000  people  were  in  1818  induced 
to  refuse  work  for  the  space  of  several  months ; 
and  "  the  district,"  says  Mr.  Wade,  "  has  at  no  pe- 
riod, for  several  years,  been  without  the  excite- 
ment and  confusion  of  tumults  caused  by  these  as» 
sociations." 

The  most  recent  and  striking  example  of  their 
power  was  presented  at  the  potteries  in  Stafford., 
shire  (England).  More  than  30,000  operatives, 
constituting  the  entire  force  of  those  establish- 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  257 

ttients,  were  in  1837  nearly  six  months  without  any 
employment,  owing  to  the  Unions.  The  introduc- 
tion of  these  clubs  in  1833  marked  the  beginning 
of  controversies  between  the  masters  and  work- 
men, which  continued  till  August,  1836,  when,  by  a 
decree  of  the  Union,  several  manufactories,  em- 
ploying in  all  about  3000  hands,  were  suddenly 
cleared.  Upon  this,  the  whole  body  of  employers, 
who,  in  anticipation  of  such  a  movement,  had  pre- 
viously formed  themselves  into  a  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, resolved,  that  since  the  men,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Union,  must  have  a  partial  turn-out, 
they  would  insist  upon  its  becoming  general*  In 
consequence,  every  proprietor  closed  his  works ; 
the  whole  population  were  left  without  work,  and 
it  was  not  till  the  January  following  that  the  diffi- 
culty was  adjusted  and  the  men  restored  to  their 
places. 

These  associations  are  formed  and  confederated 
in  the  following  manner.  As  many  of  the  jour- 
neymen of  the  same  craft  in  a  town  as  are  willing, 
form  a  society.  From  each  of  these  societies  or 
lodges  delegates  are  convened  at  some  central 
point,  who  form  a  General  Union  of  Trades  ;  and 
again,  by  delegations  from  these  Unions,  a  General 
Convention,  representing  all  the  trades  in  the  Uni- 
ted States,  is  formed  and  meets  annually.  By  the 
monthly  contributions  of  each  member,  a  fund  is 
created  to  pay  the  expenses  of  these  delegates,  aid 
necessitous  members,  especially  during  strikes,  and 
meet  other  charges.  When  in  any  district  the 
controversy  of  workmen  with  their  employers  ap- 
proaches a  crisis,  a  Board  of  Management  is  crea. 
Y2 


258  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

ted,  to  conduct  negotiations,  prescribe  terms,  and 
dictate  the  extent  and  duration  of  strikes. 

V.    TENDENCY    OF    COMBINATIONS. 

What  would  a  reflecting  man  expect  of  such 
combinations  ?  Associated  action  is  powerful ;  and 
when  it  enlists  great  numbers,  so  situated  that  they 
combine  easily  and  intimately,  its  power  may  be 
all  but  overwhelming.  And  to  this,  provided  the 
power  be  used  rightfully,  it  is  not  our  purpose  to 
object.  The  world  owes,  to  the  union  and  associ- 
ation of  good  men  for  worthy  objects,  some  of  its 
best  and  noblest  inheritances ;  and  since  the  very 
essence  of  civilization  lies  in  co-operative  effort, 
and  the  motive  and  means  for  applying  such  effort 
are  constantly  multiplying  with  the  progress  of 
freedom  and  intelligence,  it  is  idle  to  think  of  ar* 
resting  the  tendency  to  it  which  characterizes  our 
age.  In  every  department  of  human  affairs — be  it 
financial,  literary,  or  philanthropic — it  will,  for  good 
or  for  evil,  have  its  course.  But  it  must  be  watch* 
ed.  Criteria  must  be  fixed  by  which  we  can  dis- 
tinguish its  safe  and  beneficent  movements,  and 
guard  it  against  perversion.  Few  scourges  have 
been  more  dreadful  than  those  wielded  at  times  by 
well-disciplined  and  extended  confederacies.  Is 
there,  then,  in  these  leagues  called  Trades'  Unions, 
anything  calculated  to  awaken  suspicion,  or  to  fur* 
nish  just  ground  for  alarm  1 

We  hold  that  the  power  lodged  with  associations 
is  safe  from  great  and  dangerous  abuse  only  when 
their  objects  are  clearly  avowed  and  their  proceed, 
ings  substantially  public  ;  when  their  composition 
is  so  far  promiscuous  as  to  secure  them  from  a 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  259 

clannish  spirit  and  an  anti- social  policy ;  and  when 
the  influence  on  which  they  rely  is  of  a  purely 
moral  nature,  appealing  to  something  higher  than 
fear.  Allow  them  the  use  of  violence,  or  even  of 
intimidation,  and  they  will  soon  usurp  the  place  of 
law,  and  erect  themselves  into  the  most  intolerable 
of  all  tyrannies.  Suffer  them  to  imbody  but  the 
members  of  one  profession  or  class,  and  those  but 
of  one  sex,  and  they  will  evince  an  exclusiveness 
and  identity  of  feeling,  and  be  liable  to  ebullitions 
of  passion,  which  will  render  them  always  trou- 
blesome, and,  in  seasons  of  great  danger  or  excite- 
ment, doubly  so.*  And,  finally,  permit  them  to 
proceed  in  secret,  and  for  purposes  not  fully  known 
or  explained,  and  the  temptation  to  convert  them 
into  instruments  of  oppression  for  political  or  re- 
ligious  ends  will  be  nearly  irresistible. 

What,  then,  is  the  character  of  Trades'  Unions 
in  these  respects  ?  In  regard  to  the  objects  which 
they  propose  to  accomplish,  such  as  redress  of 
grievances,  vindication  of  rights,  security  against 
aggression,  &c.,  it  must  be  evident  that  these  are 
.quite  too  indefinite  ;  such  phrases  admitting  of 
any  construction  that  convenience  may  require,  and 
having  been  often  used  as  pretexts  for  sedition* 
So  with  respect  to  their  proceedings,  without  a 
knowledge  of  which  the  public  can  never  be  secure 

*  "  Leagues  thus  formed  and  strengthened  may  overawe  or 
overset  the  power  of  any  state  ;  and  the  danger  is  greater  in  pro- 
portion as,  from  the  propinquity  of  habitation  and  intercourse  of  em~ 
ployment,  the  passions  and  counsels  of  a  party  can  be  circulated 
with  ease  and  rapidity.  It  is  by  these  means  and  in  such  situ* 
ations  that  the  minds  of  men  are  so  affected  and  prepared,  that 
the  most  dreadful  uproars  often  arise  from  the  slightest  provoca- 
tions. When  the  train  is  laid,  a  spark  will  produce  the  explo- 
sion." Paley's  Mo.  ,&  Pol.  Phil,,  b.  vi.,  c.  ji. 


260  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

against  machinations  and  disturbances.  Whenever 
the  members  are  about  to  engage  in  a  contest  with 
their  employers,  the  Board,  which  is  clothed  with 
the  power  of  dictating  its  form,  extent,  and  contin- 
uance, sits,  in  almost  all  cases,  with  closed  doors, 
its  members  being  unknown.  For  example,  in  the 
late  difficulty  in  the  potteries  of  Staffordshire,  when 
from  15  to  20,000  families  were  deprived  of  the 
ordinary  means  of  support,  the  Board  of  Man- 
agement, which,  by  one  of  its  rules, "  had  a  controll- 
ing influence  over  all  the  lodges  in  matters  of  im- 
portance," and,  through  the  lodges,  over  each  indi- 
vidual member,  such  member  being  required,  on 
admission,  to  pledge  himself  that,  "  so  long  as  the 
society  should  continue,  he  would  in  all  things  ad- 
here to  its  rules,  and  never  act  contrary  to  its 
spirit  and  constitution ;"  this  Board,  we  say,  com- 
posed of  over  sixty  members,  which  dictated  turn- 
outs, proscribed  intercourse  between  workmen  and 
their  employers,  levied  fines  and  taxes,  and  dis- 
missed recusant  members,  was  so  completely  in- 
visible, that  "  scarcely  a  member  of  the  Union  ei- 
ther knew,  or  pretended  to  know,  more  than  some 
one  or  two  of  its  members. "  Such  a  fact  speaks  vol- 
umes in  regard  to  the  true  character  and  tendency 
of  these  associations,  and  can  hardly  be  lost  on  a 
people  so  jealous  as  we  are  of  our  liberties.  Se- 
cret confederacies,  it  must  be  evident,  are  often 
fraught  with  more  real  danger  than  open  sedition, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  more  likely  to  draw  to  their 
support  well- disposed  but  inconsiderate  persons. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that  Trades'  Unions 
are  composed  of  persons  belonging  to  but  one 
class — that  of  journeymen.  To  say  nothing  here 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  261 

of  the  incendiary  spirit  which  is  apt  to  reign  in  the 
counsels  of  men  thus  isolated  from  the  rest  of  so- 
ciety,  and  united  by  sympathy,  proximity  of  situa- 
tion, and  similarity  of  condition  ;  nor  of  the  facil- 
ities which  exist  among  them  for  combination,  and 
the  narrow  views,  even  of  their  own  interest,  which 
they  are  apt  to  acquire  by  exclusive  communion 
among  themselves  ;  there  is  to  this  feature  of  their 
constitution  another,  and,  in  this  country,  still  more 
serious  objection.  It  tends  to  arrest  among  jour- 
neymen the  spirit  of  improvement,  and  to  fix  them 
in  a  condition  of  permanent  inferiority.  One  of 
the  great  advantages  of  a  state  of  society  like  that 
which  exists  in  this  country  is,  that  as  every  man 
may,  so  does  almost  every  man  expect  to,  improve 
his  condition.  Until  recently,  no  journeyman  was 
satisfied  with  the  prospect  of  remaining  a  journey- 
man through  life.  He  was  looking  forward  to  the 
time  when  he  should  become  an  employer;  and  he 
felt  urged,  therefore,  not  only  to  industry  and  good 
conduct,  but  to  an  active  interest  in  maintaining  the 
rights  of  employers.  But  let  him  become  an  active 
member  of  these  Unions  ;  let  him  anticipate  some 
influence  and  fame  as  the  reward  of  his  services, 
and  from  that  moment  he  feels  as  if  he  had  cast  in 
his  lot  for  life  with  journeymen.  He  gets,  by  de- 
grees, to  regard  employers  as  a  hostile  class ;  fosters 
feelings  and  avows  doctrines  which  shut  him  out 
from  their  sympathy,  and  renders  it  constantly  more 
difficult  to  leave  the  party  he  has  espoused,  and  join 
another  he  has  so  often  and  so  loudly  condemned. 
If  we  desired  to  alter  the  whole  genius  of  American 
society  ;  to  resolve  it  into  classes  separated  by  bar. 
yiers  almost  impassable,  and  to  condemn  the  largest 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

portion  to  lasting  inferiority,  we  should  certainly 
recommend  some  such  expedient  as  Trades'  Unions. 
They  appear  to  us  to  be  perfectly  calculated  to  in- 
spire the  poor,  not  indeed  with  contentment,  but 
with  a  spirit  which  is  much  more  likely  to  keep 
them  down,  and  to  deprive  them,  not  only  of  the 
sympathy  and  good- will  of  the  rich,  but  of  all  high 
and  generous  ambition.  On  this  point  we  fully  con- 
cur in  the  sentiment  put  forth,  though  with  different 
views,  in  the  address  of  the  President  of  the  General 
Trades'  Union  of  the  city  of  New- York  :  "  It  has 
been  avowed  with  great  truth,  that  all  governments 
become  cruel  and  aristocratical  in  their  character 
and  bearing  in  proportion  as  one  part  of  the  com- 
munity is  elevated  and  the  other  depressed.  And 
we  regard  it  to  be  equally  true,  that,  in  proportion  as 
the  line  of  distinction  between  the  employer  and 
employed  is  widened,  the  condition  of  the  latter  in- 
evitably verges  towards  a  state  of  vassalage,  while 
that  of  the  former  as  certainly  approximates  to- 
wards supremacy." — p.  10. 

There  is  another  fact  entitled  to  some  notice. 
These  Unions  profess  to  have  been  formed  in  or- 
der to  promote,  among  other  things,  the  intellectual 
improvement  of  their  members.  We  could  wish 
that,  in  pursuing  that  object,  they  had  not  so  entire- 
ly  overlooked  another  and  yet  more  important  one. 
However  desirable  it  may  be  to  ameliorate  the  out- 
ward condition  of  men  and  to  enlighten  their  under- 
standings, it  must  be  admitted  to  be  inconceivably 
more  desirable  to  raise  the  tone  of  their  deportment 
and  moral  sentiments.  In  increasing  their  physical 
and  intellectual  resources  merely,  we  may  but  in- 
crease their  misery,  and  the  mischief  which  they 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  263 

will  inflict  on  their  families  or  the  public.  No  body 
of  men  is  more  dangerous  than  one  raised  in  influ- 
ence above  the  mass  of  those  engaged  in  similar 
pursuits,  and  constantly  busied  in  inspiring  jealousy 
and  promoting  agitation.  That  such  is  the  case 
with  these  Unions  we  do  not  affirm.  But  it  is  wor- 
thy of  notice,  that  their  leaders  are  generally  from 
abroad,  and  that  their  doctrines  respecting  labour 
and  capital  are  often  propagated  in  close  connex- 
ion with  tenets  held  by  Mr.  Owen  respecting  Poli- 
tics  and  Religion.  Now  we  know  something  of 
the  style  and  spirit  of  the  literature  which  thrives 
amid  such  tenets.  The  Halls  of  Science  estab- 
lished  under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Owen  push  their 
researches  into  the  realms  of  atheism  and  sedition. 
They  have  little  taste  for  anything  farther.  So 
with  Trades5  Unions.  They  convene  their  mem- 
bers to  hear  of  "  equal  rights,"  "  rapacious  capital- 
ists," "  grinding  employers."  But  we  are  inform- 
ed of  no  libraries  that  they  have  established  \  of  no 
lectures  that  they  have  instituted  ;  nor,  indeed,  of 
any  measures  for  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge, 
which  were  not  already  prevalent  and  of  easy  ac- 
cess. 

But,  if  working  men  are  aggrieved,  some  one  may 
say,  why  not  allow  them  the  means  of  redress? 
How  can  they  hope  to  rise  without  union  and  con- 
cert ?  To  such  questions  we  reply,  that,  in  order  to 
rise  indeed,  they  ought  to  aim,  first  of  all,  at  the  ex- 
altation  each  of  his  own  individual  character.  To 
give  real  and  permanent  advancement  to  a  class, 
while  the  individuals  who  compose  it  are  degenera- 
ting, must  be  a  vain  attempt.  And  we  reply  yet 
farther,  that  it  ought  hardly  to  be  assumed,  and  that, 


264  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

too,  as  it  generally  is,  without  examination,  that  in 
this  young  republic,  to  which  men  are  thronging, 
from  all  quarters  of  the  world,  as  to  a  land  of  prom- 
ise  and  freedom,  and  in  which  every  individual  can 
cause  himself  to  be  felt  through  the  ballot-box — that 
in  such  a  country  labouring  men  are  already  the  vie- 
tims  of  a  grinding  oppression.  Least  of  all  should 
this  be  assumed  at  the  bidding  of  men  who  have  but 
just  escaped  from  legal  disabilities  in  their  native 
lands,  and  who,  admitted  here,  not  only  to  an  asy- 
lum, but  to  every  political  privilege,  hasten  to  evince 
their  gratitude  by  abusing  our  institutions,  and  en- 
deavouring to  subvert  the  very  power  that  welcomes 
and  protects  them.  We  propose,  however,  to  in- 
quire  for  a  moment  what  these  grievances  are,  and 
also  how  far  Trades'  Unions  are  likely  to  afford  a 
remedy. 

VI.  WAGES. 

The  great  grievance  complained  of  by  these 
Unions — the  one,  indeed,  into  which,  in  their  esti- 
timation,  all  the  rest  may  be  resolved,  is  inadequacy 
of  wages.  Though  they  have  in  some  instances 
demanded  only  a  reduction  in  the  hours  of  daily  la- 
bour,  their  claim  has  generally  embraced,  besides 
such  reduction,  an  advance  of  pay,  and  has  thus 
contemplated,  in  effect,  two  advances  in  wages. 
The  spirit  in  which  this,  their  main  object,  is  pur- 
sued, may  be  inferred  from  the  following  resolu- 
tion, adopted  in  the  General  Convention  of  Trades' 
Unions  held  August,  1834  : 

"  Resolved,  that  we  recommend  to  the  several 
Trades'  Unions  in  the  United  States  to  oppose  res- 
olutely every  attempt  to  reduce  their  wages,  and  to 
hold  fast  any  additions  they  may  receive." 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  265 

It  thus  appears  that  the  rate  of  wages  paid 
through  the  country  in  August,  1834,  was  to  be 
adopted  by  the  Union  as  a  minimum,  below  which 
no  reduction  should  take  place  ;  while  an  advance 
was  to  be  the  object  of  their  strenuous  and  unceas- 
ing exertions.  To  give  effect  to  such  exertions  in 
the  last  resort,  the  great  instrument  relied  on,  as 
our  readers  must  be  aware,  is  a  strike,  i.  e.,  a  gen- 
eral and  protracted  refusal  to  labour.  The  Union 
having  fixed  on  certain  terms  as  the  workmen's  ul- 
timatum, give  notice  to  the  employer,  and  apprize 
him  that  his  men  will  leave  him  unless  these  terms 
are  complied  with.  In  case  he  declines,  measures 
are  immediately  taken  to  secure  the  co-operation 
of  journeymen  who  do  not  belong  to  the  Union  ; 
the  strike  ensues ;  an  extraordinary  tax  is  levied  on 
the  members  of  other  trades,  and  on  those  of  the 
same  trade  in  other  places  ;  and  the  proceeds,  after 
paying  the  expenses  of  management,  &c.,  are  ap- 
plied to  the  relief  of  the  unemployed.  In  this  way 
the  strike  is  sometimes  maintained  for  months  to- 
gether, and  is  at  length  terminated  by  a  compro- 
mise between  the  parties,  or  by  the  submission  of 
one  of  them. 

That  the  wages  of  labouring  men  ought  to  be 
high — as  high,  indeed,  as  the  general  welfare  will 
allow — must  in  this  country  be  conceded  by  every 
one.  To  attempt  to  raise  them  higher,  and  advance 
the  labourer  at  the  expense  of  other  classes,  would 
not  only  be  unjust,  but  would  surely  terminate  in  in- 
juring him.  It  becomes  important,  then,  to  ascer- 
tain what  are  high  wages  1 

It  is  evident  that  this  question  cannot  be  answer. 
ed  by  a  mere  reference  to  the  money  rate  of  wages ; 
Z 


266  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

to  their  rate,  that  is,  when  computed  in  dollars  and 
cents  ;  and  this  for  the  obvious  reason  that  a  given 
number  of  dollars  and  cents  is  at  one  time  worth  more 
than  it  is  at  another,  because  it  will  give  us  a  great- 
er command  over  the  comforts  and  necessaries  of 
life.  It  is  to  this  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  true 
measure  of  wages.  Money  is  valuable  only  as  it- 
enables  us  to  procure  the  purchaseable  means  of 
gratification  ;  and  if  these  decline  in  price,  it  is  ev- 
ident that  the  amount  in  money  paid  for  our  labour 
might  be  reduced  in  the  same  proportion,  and  yet 
our  means  of  enjoyment  remain  unchanged.  When 
we  inquire,  then,  whether  wages  are  high,  we  mere- 
ly inquire  whether  they  enable  the  labourer  to  pro- 
cure a  liberal  supply  of  the  requisite  enjoyments. 
He  might,  in  fact,  be  improving  in  his  relative  con- 
dition, notwithstanding  a  fall  in  his  wages,  provided 
there  was  a  yet  greater  fall  in  the  commodities 
which  he  has  to  purchase  ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  rise  of  wages  would  benefit  him,  if  the  ex. 
pense  of  subsistence  were  at  the  same  time  advan- 
cing in  an  equal  or  a  yet  greater  proportion. 

Now  it  is  well  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  direct 
tendency  of  the  operations  of  Trades'  Unions  is  to 
advance  the  expense  of  living,  materially,  to  the  la- 
bourer. In  raising  the  wages  of  workmen  in  the 
different  trades,  they  must  advance  the  price  of  the 
articles  which  those  workmen  manufacture,  and 
thus  levy  an  indirect  tax  upon  all  who  consume 
them,  of  which  class  they  themselves  form  the  lar- 
gest proportion.  Through  the  agency  of  these 
Unions,  the  carpenter,  it  is  true,  may  secure  in- 
creased compensation  for  his  labour  ;  but,  then,  in- 
stead of  being  suffered  to  retain  it,  it  will  be  well  if 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  267 

he  be  not  required  to  disburse  all  of  it,  and  even 
more,  to  his  landlord,  tailor,  hatter,  and  shoemaker, 
in  the  shape  of  additions  to  their  prices.  That 
which  he  has  to  sell  may  by  such  means  be  made 
to  bring  a  higher  price  ;  but  so  in  like  manner,  and 
for  the  same  reason,  will  that  which  he  has  to  buy. 
There  never  was  a  greater  error  than  to  suppose 
that  wages  can  be  regulated  in  one  trade  irrespec- 
tive of  the  rate  which  they  bear  in  others. 

Whether  wages  in  the  United  States  are  high, 
may  be  ascertained,  in  part,  by  comparing  the 
means  of  subsistence  and  enjoyment  which  our 
mechanics  can  command  with  those  possessed  by 
the  same  class  in  other  countries  ;  but  more  com- 
pletely by  comparing  them  with  the  wants  of  man 
as  an  intellectual,  social,  moral,  and  progressive 
being.  By  the  former  of  these  methods  we  shall 
at  once  discover  that  the  condition  of  American 
workmen  is  such  as  to  render  them  the  envy  and 
admiration  of  their  brethren  in  every  other  land. 
By  the  latter  we  shall  find  that  scarcely  anything 
is  required  for  happiness,  improvement,  or  useful, 
ness,  which  is  not  attainable  by  the  labouring  pop- 
ulation of  the  United  States.  How  easily  do  they 
procure  the  shelter  of  a  comfortable  roof,  and  an 
abundant  supply  of  wholesome  food  and  raiment  ? 
How  moderate  a  share  of  prudence  and  industry 
is  yet  sufficient  to  authorize  the  labouring  man  to 
charge  himself  with  the  care  of  a  rising  family, 
and  thus  to  secure  a  happiness  and  a  measure  of 
moral  improvement  to  be  found  only  amid  the 
duties  and  charities  of  domestic  life  ?  Who  among 
them  has  not  leisure  (if  lie  is  disposed  to  improve 
it)  for  the  cultivation  of  his  mind,  by  reading  and 


268  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

reflection,  and  by  intercourse  with  others.  Be- 
sides providing  for  his  daily  wants,  who  may  not 
store  away  something  against  the  time  of  sickness 
and  old  age,  and  gather  a  little  capital  with  which 
to  couple  his  skill  and  energies  ?  And  then,  has 
he  not,  in  common  with  the  most  affluent,  freedom 
of  conscience,  the  unshackled  privilege  of  forming 
and  uttering  his  own  opinions,  the  equal  protection 
of  the  laws,  and  the  solemn  restraints,  and  high 
incitements,  and  holy  hopes  of  the  Christian's 
faith  1  Could  the  factious  and  discontented  be  in- 
duced to  reflect  dispassionately  on  their  condition, 
they  could  not  but  feel,  that  if  with  such  advanta- 
ges  they  are  not  happy  and  enlightened,  and  virtu, 
ous  too,  the  fault  must  be  their  own.  They  would 
see  reason  to  fear,  that  if  with  the  wages  which 
they  receive  now  they  are  restless  and  dissatis- 
fied, yet  higher  wages  would  only  tempt  them  to 
idleness  and  prodigality.  It  is  a  melancholy  truth, 
that  in  every  country  the  best  paid  workmen  are 
usually  the  most  thriftless  and  irregular.  We  do 
not  mention  this  fact  as  an  argument  against  the 
advance  of  wages,  but  as  a  proof  that  the  highest 
welfare  of  the  labouring  classes  depends,  after  all, 
upon  themselves  ;  and  that,  without  virtuous  prin- 
ciples and  habits,  no  increase  of  compensation  can 
either  enrich  or  elevate  them.  We  see  multitudes 
among  us  who,  from  the  humblest  beginnings  and 
with  low  wages,  have  yet  risen,  by  dint  of  honesty 
and  perseverance,  to  wealth  and  distinction.  We 
see  multitudes  also  who,  with  every  advantage  of 
high  wages  and  powerful  friends,  have  yet  sunk, 
for  the  want  of  these  qualities,  to  the  lowest  deg- 
radation ;  and  we  conclude  that,  in  this  country 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  269 

at  least,  labouring  men  want  nothing  so  much  as 
to  be  true  to  themselves. 

It  must  be  admitted,  we  think,  that  the  wages 
Usually  paid  in  the  United  States  put  the  labourer 
in  possession  of  those  advantages  which  are  most 
to  be  desired  in  a  world  like  ours.  There  may  be 
places  where,  owing  to  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
population,  and  the  consequent  demand  for  tene- 
ments and  subsistence,  the  expense  of  living  has 
increased  in  a  greater  ratio  than  wages.  But.  gen- 
erally,  the  price  of  labour  in  this  country  is  as  high 
now  as  it  was  forty  years  since ;  and  if  we  com- 
pare the  average  money  rate  of  wages  for  the  last,/ 
fifty  years  with  the  average  prices  of  food,  cloth, 
ing,  &c.,  we  shall  see  reason  to  infer  that  the  rela- 
tive condition  of  the  labouring  population  has  im- 
proved. While  the  orators  of  the  Union  would 
persuade  the  workman  that  the  encroachments  of 
capital  are  constantly  advancing,  and  that  he  is 
fast  sinking  to  a  condition  of  "  white  slavery," 
worse  than  that  occupied  by  the  bondmen  of  the 
cotton-field  or  the  sugar-plantation,  facts  prove 
that  he  is  participating  in  the  progress  of  the  age  ; 
and  that  those  changes  in  the  right  of  suffrage 
which  have  enlarged  his  political  influence,  are  but 
an  index  to  the  increased  facilities  which  he  enjoys 
for  improving  his  social  and  moral  condition. 

Still,  these  facilities  admit  of  yet  farther  increase. 
The  great  question,  then,  remains,  are  Trades' 
Unions  calculated  to  secure  such  increase  ?  Are 
they  so  constituted  as  to  promise  any  real  and  per- 
manent advancement  to  those  who  unite  with  them, 
and  that  without  injury  to  others  1  We  say  with- 
out injury  to  others,  because  the  first  requisite,  in 
Z  2 


270  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

every  effort  to  advance  the  interests  of  a  class, 
must  be  that  it  does  not  infringe  violently  on  the 
rights  or  interests  of  other  classes.  We  are  thus 
brought  to  consider  the  bearing  which  these  asso- 
ciations are  likely  to  have,  first,  on  the  welfare  of 
those  not  members  ;  and,  secondly,  on  the  welfare, 
and  particularly  on  the  rate  of  wages,  of  those 
who  are  members. 

VII.    EFFECTS    OF   COMBINATIONS   ON    THOSE   NOT 
MEMBERS. 

On  the  first  point,  we  propose  to  show  that  a 
degree  of  injustice  is  involved  in  the  very  concep^ 
tion  of  Trades'  Unions,  and  that  they  can  be  main* 
tained  in  no  way  without  interfering  with  the 
rights  of  other  and  important  classes  of  the  com. 
munity. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  the  rights  of  employers  are 
invaded  by  these  associations.  They  are  not  per- 
mitted to  negotiate  with  their  workmen  on  terms 
of  equality.  They  can  do  it,  in  times  of  excite- 
ment, only  through  the  medium  of  an  irresponsible 
but  by  no  means  impartial  body  :  a  body,  indeed, 
whose  interests  and  whose  prejudices  are  entirely 
at  variance  with  their  rights.  Measures  are  aL 
ways  taken,  at  such  times,  to  prevent  the  employer 
from  supplying  the  places  of  those  who,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Union,  demand  an  advance  of 
wages  ;  and  he  is  thus  reduced  to  the  necessity  ei- 
ther of  closing  his  works,  or  of  yielding  to  demands 
which  he  feels  to  be  oppressive. 

The  employers'  rights  are  still  farther  invaded 
by  the  measures  of  these  Unions,  because  they 
tend  to  disturb  the  proportion  which  ought  to  sub* 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  271 

sist  between  the  cost  of  producing  articles  and  the 
price  of  selling  them.  By  raising  the  wages  of  V 
the  labourer,  we  raise,  of  course,  the  prime  cost  of 
the  article  which  he  is  employed  in  making ;  and 
by  resolving,  as  was  done  in  the  Trades'  Conven- 
tion of  1834,  that  these  advanced  wages  shall  be 
continued,  we  resolve  to  charge  the  employer  for 
ever  with  this  increased  cost.  But  how  can  we 
ensure  him  that  the  prices  at  which  he  can  dispose 
of  these  articles  shall  not,  in  the  mean  time,  de- 
.dine?  Perhaps  he  can,  at  present,  secure  but  a 
moderate  profit ;  and  yet  he  is  to  be  compelled  by 
the  Union  not  only  to  advance  the  wages  of  his 
workmen,  but  to  do  it  the  very  moment  the  value 
in  market  of  the  articles  which  he  produces  may 
be  depreciating ;  and  the  institution  which  would 
apply  such  compulsion  claims  to  be  the  great  and 
almost  exclusive  champion  of  equal  rights  /  Let 
us  suppose  that  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
New- York  should  enact  that  no  journeyman  shall 
receive  more  than  one  dollar  per  day  for  his  la. 
bour,  nor  be  employed  less  than  twelve  hours. 
Are  the  hardy  operatives  of  the  shop  and  the  mill 
prepared  to  submit  to  such  a  decree?  Who  does 
not  know  that  they  would  swell  the  cry  of  resist, 
ance  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  another,  and  that 
legislators  who  should  presume  thus  to  intermeddle 
between  journeymen  and  their  employers,  and  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  largest  liberty  and  pros- 
perity  of  the  working  classes,  would  have  to  bid  a 
long  farewell  to  all  hope  of  popular  favour  !  But 
if  the  Legislature  has  clearly  no  right  to  prohibit 
workmen  from  receiving  more  than  a  certain  sum, 
what  right  can  the  Union  have  to  prohibit  masters 


272  POLITICAL    ECONOMY* 

from  paying  less  than  a  certain  sum  ?  Who  gave 
to  the  Union,  more  than  to  the  Legislature,  the 
prerogative  of  fixing  a  tariff  of  wages,  and  decree, 
ing  when  and  how  it  shall  be  altered  ]  There  is 
between  these  two  cases  no  difference,  except  that 
the  one  has  been  attempted  only  by  the  legisla- 
tures of  dark  ages,*  the  other  is  attempted  by  the 
Unions  of  the  19th  century.  The  one  was  rank 
injustice  towards  the  labourer,  the  other  is  injus- 
tice no  less  rank  towards  the  employer.  It  is,  in 
truth,  the  very  same  principle,  abandoned  by  the 
enlightened  capitalist  to  be  taken  up  by  the  unin- 
structed  and  misguided  workman.  May  we  not 
hope,  that,  in  the  progress  of  society,  he  too  will 
be  brought  to  see  its  injustice  in  regard  to  others, 
as  well  as  its  flagrant  impolicy  in  respect  to  him- 
self? 

2.  Trades'  Unions,  in  their  zeal  to  promote  the 
interests  of  mechanics,  encroach  also  on  the  rights 
of  the  agricultural  class.  In  advancing  the  wages 
of  the  operative  mechanic,  they  enhance  the  cost 
to  the  husbandman  of  his  tools,  shoes,  hats,  &c.  ; 
while  they  do  nothing  by  advancing  his  own  wages 
to  enable  him  to  meet  this  enhanced  cost.  The 
remuneration  which  he  receives  for  his  labour  is 
already  lower  in  proportion  than  that  paid  to  any 
description  of  journeymen,  and  the  measures  pro- 
posed by  Trades'  Unions  must,  if  carried  out,  have 
the  effect  of  imposing  upon  him  yet  more  grievous 
disadvantages.  It  should  always  be  considered 

*  A  statute  of  1496  in  England,  prescribes  the  wages  which 
should  be  paid  to  labourers  of  various  kinds,  and  provides  that 
if  any  unemployed  person  refused  to  serve  at  the  above  wages,  he 
might  be  imprisoned  till  he  found  sureties  to  serve  according  to 
the  statute. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  273 

that  farm-labourers,  scattered  as  they  are  over  a 
country,  have  no  facilities  for  combination,  and 
can  have  no  hope,  therefore,  by  concert  and  co-op- 
eration, to  force  an  advance  of  wages. 

3.  The  measures  taken  by  Trades'  Unions  com- 
promise still  more  seriously  the  rights  of  non-asso- 
ciated workmen.  Whatever  right  the  members  of 
such  associations  possess  to  fix  a  price  upon  their 
labour,  and  to  do  it,  too,  by  combination,  ought 
surely  to  be  enjoyed  by  an  individual  labourer  act- 
ing only  for  himself.  If  he  chooses  to  work  at 
rates  lower  than  those  which  they  have  prescribed, 
he  does  it  in  the  exercise  of  a  liberty  of  which  they 
have  furnished  a  striking  example.  It  may  be  true 
that  the  wages  which  he  accepts  are  very  low ; 
but  of  that,  may  he  not  judge  for  himself  ?  It  may 
be  true,  too,  that,  by  accepting  such  wages,  he  in- 
directly injures  others  ;  but  will  that  authorize  the 
Union  to  compel  him,  by  refusing  them,  to  injure 
himself,  perchance  to  starve  his  family  ?  Here  is 
the  radical  error  and  vice  of  these  combinations. 
They  demand  for  themselves  what  they  will  not 
concede  to  others.  "  From  early  morn  to  dewy 
eve"  they  clamour  for  the  right  of  making  their 
own  terms  with  employers  ;  they  dilate  upon  the 
wrongs  which  are  heaped  by  these  employers  on 
them — the  weaker  party;  when  they  are  them- 
selves busy  in  bringing  the  whole  power  of  a  se- 
cret and  irresponsible  confederacy  to  bear  upon 
the  poor  workman,  merely  because  he  demands  a 
similar  right  for  himself.  An  association  which, 
more  than  any  other,  cries  out  against  oppression, 
and  that,  too,  the  oppression  of  the  poor,  is  en- 
gaged at  every  strike  in  perpetrating,  towards  the 


274  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

most  meritorious  of  the  poor,  an  oppression  of  the 
most  unrelenting  character.  To  prevent  indus- 
trious men,  charged  with  families,  and  needing  for 
their  support  all  the  fruits  of  incessant  labour,  from 
filling  places  made  vacant  by  turn-outs,  every  ex- 
pedient which  ingenuity  and  malice  can  invent  is 
appealed  to.  If  possible,  such  men  are  cajoled  by 
fair  words  ;  if  these  fail,  they  are  threatened  ;  and 
if  that  does  not  succeed,  they  are  then  over- 
whelmed with  all  the  violence  of  a  vulgar  and  re- 
lentless persecution.  However  inoffensive,  they 
are  assailed  on  their  way  to  work.  They  are 
beaten — maimed,  perhaps  incurably — oil  of  vitriol 
is  thrown  in  their  eyes — in  some  instances  they 
are  made  blind  for  life — in  others  killed.*  All 

*  The  following  extracts  will  show  what  a  spirit  pervades 
these  associations  both  in  Great  Britain  and  the  'United  States. 
Says  Mr.  George  Rogle,  when  on  oath  before  the  British  Par- 
liament :  "  I  have  had  several  turn-outs.  1  will  relate  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  last,  which  took  place  on  the  16th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1830,  and  continued  till  the  17th  of  January,  1831.  The 
whole  of  our  spinners,  whose  average  (weekly)  wages  were 
21.  13s.  5d.,  turned  out  at  the  instigation,  as  they  told  us,  of  the 
delegates  of  the  Union.  They  said  they  had  no  fault  to  find 
with  their  wages,  their  work,  or  their  masters,  but  the  Union 
obliged  them  to  turn  out.  The  same  week  three  delegates 
from  the  Spinners'  Union  waited  upon  us  at  our  mill,  and  dic- 
tated certain  advances  in  wages  and  other  regulations,  to  which, 
if  we  would  not  adhere,  they  said  that  neither  our  own  spinners 
nor  any  other  should  work  for  us  again.  Of  course  we  de- 
clined, believing  our  wages  to  be  ample,  and  our  regulations 
such  as  were  necessary  for  the  proper  conducting  the  establish- 
ment. The  consequences  were,  they  set  watches  on  every 
avenue  to  the  mill,  night  and  day,  to  prevent  any  fresh  hands 
coming  into  the  mill,  an  object  which  they  effectually  attained 
by  intimidating  some,  and  promising  support  to  others  (whom  I 
got  into  the  mill  in  a  caravan)  if  they  would  leave  their  work." 
Mr.  Graham,  another  witness,  adds :  4<  They  will  abuse  any- 
body that  comes  in  the  most  shocking  manner,  even  to  taking 
their  lives  if  it  were  .necessary.  Within  a  week  before  I  left 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  275 

this  has  been  done,  over  and  over  again,  as  an  ap- 
propriate and  necessary  step  in  that  series  of 

Glasgow,  they  beat  a  person,  and  he  came  back  to  the  work 
frightened  and  alarmed,  and  he  was  obliged  to  go  out.  Some 
years  ago  there  were  several  people  almost  destroyed  by  vitriol 
being  thrown  upon  them  by  combined  men." 

The  New- York  Journal  of  Commerce  of  February  26,  1836, 
has  the  following:  "On  the  23d  instant,  the  riggers  and  ship- 
labourers  turned  out  in  large  numbers,  and  went  about  the 
wharves  in  a  body,  compelling  such  of  their  profession  as  they 
found  at  work  to  quit  the  business  in  which  they  were  engaged. 
Almost  simultaneously,  a  squad  of  day-labourers  of  another  de- 
scription, chiefly  foreigners,  went  through  the  burned  district, 
compelling  their  fellow-labourers  about  the  premises  to  quit 
work,  because  they  were  receiving  $1  a  day  instead  of  $1  25, 
which  the&^  imported  dictators  had  determined  was  the  rightful 
sum." 

In  the  New- York  American  of  about  the  same  date  we  find  the 
following :  "  A  seafaring  man,  from  exposure  to  severe  weather, 
was.  on  his  arrival  in  port,  sent  to  the  city  hospital,  where  his 
general  health  was  restored,  but  both  feet  were  lost.  Being 
cured,  he  could  no  longer,  by  the  rule  of  the  hospital,  be  kept 
there  ;  yet  to  send  him  forth  such  a  cripple  was  to  consign  him 
to  starvation.  Some  of  the  governors,  therefore,  caused  artifi- 
cial feet  to  be  made  for  him  at  a  cost  of  70  dollars,  and  then,  as 
he  said  he  had  been  accustomed  on  shipboard  to  handle  the 
sail-needle,  obtained  employment  for  him  with  a  sailmaker,  and 
placed  him  in  special  charge  of  the  foreman  of  the  loft,  with 
the  request  that  he  might  be  suffered  to  earn  whatever  he  could. 
The  cripple,  happy  and  grateful,  went  to  his  new  trade,  arid  for 
two  days  was  unmolested,  as  was  his  employers ;  and  it  was 
ascertained  that  by  such  work  he  could  earn  enough  to  keep 
him  above  want.  On  the  third  day,  a  deputation  from  the 
Trades'  Union  went  to  the  sailloft— forbade  the  employment  of 
that  helpless  sailor— forbade  him,  in  like  manner,  to  work — and 
he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  the  place.  The  governors  of  the 
hospital  received  him  back  within  their  walls,  or  he  would  have 
been  left  without  a  meal  or  a  place  to  lay  his  head." 

We  add  one  more  case.  "  In  March,  1836,  a  number  of 
journeymen  granite  cutters,  not  members  of  the  Union,  were 
obliged  to  combine  in  order  to  protect  themselves  against  its 
machinations.  In  their  manifesto  they  declare  that  the  Unions 
had  formally  proscribed  all  journeymen  who  refused  to  join  or 
co-operate  with  it ;  had  undertaken  to  prevent  such  journeymen 
from  obtaining  employment  in  any  town  in  the  United  States 


276  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

measures  which  was  to  end  in  a  triumph  over  the 
employer.  We  are  aware  that  it  is  often  said  that 
these  outrages  are  not  to  be  charged  upon  the  Soci- 
ety ;  that  they  are  the  unadvised  acts  of  individuals 
misled  by  passion,  and  perhaps  not  connected  with 
the  Union.  But  who  will  point  us  to  a  protracted 
strike  which  was  unattended  with  such  outrages  ? 
or  who  will  say  that  it  is  not  to  protracted  strikes 
that  the  Union,  when  engaged  in  a  controversy 
with  employers,  always  makes  its  ultimate  appeal  I 
Indeed,  who  does  not  see  that  these  acts  of  vio- 
lence are  the  natural  result  of  doctrines  and  sug- 
gestions so  incendiary  as  are  those  industriously 
put  forth  by  the  orators  and  presses  of  the  associ- 
tions  ?  What  better  could  be  expected  from  men 
who  are  incessantly  taught  that  they  are  cheated 
and  trodden  on ;  that  their  employers  riot  on  the 
hire  which  has  been  kept  back  by  fraud  from  them  ; 
and  that,  unless  they  rise  in  their  strength,  and 
quickly  too,  they  must  be  irredeemably  enslaved  T. 
4.  The  policy  of  Trades'  Unions  is  at  war  with 
the  rights  of  young  men  about  to  enter  the  trades 
as  apprentices.  Early  in  life  it  devolves  on  every 
young  man  to  make  choice  of  his  profession ;  and 
it  is  a  choice  not  only  important,  but,  on  many  ac- 

where  Trades'  Unions  were  established;  had,  to  use  their  own 
phrase,  nullified  two  yards,  because  their  proprietors  had  re- 
fused to  discharge  a  foreman  at  the  bidding  of  the  Union ;  had 
threatened  death,  tar  and  feathers,  battery,  and  every  species  of 
personal  indignity,  to  those  who  might  presume  to  labour  in 
those  yards ;  and,  to  intimidate  strange  journeymen,  had  de- 
clared that,  unless  they  acquiesced,  they  would  for  ever  be  ob- 
jects of  persecution ;  had  seduced  apprentices  from  the  nullified 
yards,  and  forced  them  as  journeymen  upon  others ;  and  that 
such  proceedings  had  caused  contracts  to  the  amount  of 
$250,000  to  be  removed  to  other  states." 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY,  277 

counts,  eventful.  In  this  country,  it  has  been  thus 
far  the  peculiar  privilege  of  our  youth  that  they 
have  had  the  "  world  before  them  where  to  choose." 
They  have  been  subjected  to  no  galling  restrictions, 
like  those  which  prevail  in  other  lands,*  and  which 

*  "  When  you  consider  that  no  man  can  be  a  master  printer 
in  France  without  a  license,  and  that  only  eighty  licenses  were 
granted  in  Paris,  it  is  by  no  means  wonderful  that  the  journey- 
men, forbidden  by  law  to  set  up  for  themselves,  and  prevented 
by  the  power-presses  from  getting  work  from  others,  should  be 
deeply  dissatisfied. 

"  In  England  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  for  a  mechanic  to  get 
what  is  called  a  settlement  in  any  town  except  that  in  which  he 
was  born  or  where  he  served  his  apprenticeship.  The  resort  of 
mechanics  from  place  to  place  is  permitted  only  on  conditions 
with  which  many  of  them  are  unable  to  comply.  The  conse- 
quence is,  they  are  obliged  to  stay  where  they  were  born,  where, 
perhaps,  there  are  already  more  hands  than  can  find  work  ;  and, 
from  the  decline  of  the  place,  even  the  established  artisans  want 
employment. 

"  In  other  countries,  singular  institutions  exist,  imposing  op- 
pressive burdens  on  the  mechanical  class.  I  refer  now  more 
particularly  to  the  corporations,  guilds,  or  crafts,  as  they  are 
called  ;  that  is,  the  companies  formed  by  the  members  of  a  par- 
ticular trade.  These  exist  with  great  privileges  in  every  part  of 
Europe ;  in  Germany,  there  are  some  features  in  the  institution, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  peculiarly  oppressive.  No  one  is  allowed  to 
set  up  as  a  master-workman  in  any  trade  unless  he  is  admitted 
as  a  freeman  or  member  of  the  craft ;  and  such  is  the  stationary 
condition  of  most  parts  of  Germany,  that  I  understand  that  no 
person  is  admitted  as  a  master-workman  in  any  trade,  except  to 
supply  the  place  of  some  one  deceased  or  retired  from  business. 
When  such  a  vacancy  occurs,  all  those  desirous  of  being  per- 
mitted to  fill  it  present  a  piece  of  work,  executed  as  well  as 
they  are  able  to  do  it,  which  is  called  their  master-piece,  be- 
ing offered  to  obtain  the  place  of  a  master-workman.  Nomi- 
nally the  best  workman  gets  the  best  place  ;  but  you  will  easily 
conceive  that,  in  reality,  some  kind  of  favouritism  must  gener- 
ally decide  it.  Thus  is  every  man  obliged  to  submit  to  all  the 
chances  of  a  popular  election  whether  he  shall  be  allowed  to 
work  for  his  bread,  and  that,  too,  in  a  country  where  the  people 
are  not  permitted  to  have  any  agency  in  choosing  their  rulers. 
But  the  restraints  on  journeymen  in  that  country  are  still 
more  oppressive.  As  soon  as  the  years  of  apprenticeship  have 
A  A 


278  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

debar  the  young  adventurer  from  various  privileged 
crafts,  and  confine  him,  moreover,  to  one  place  of 
abode.  As  they  have  been  left  free  to  make  them- 
selves masters  of  any  preferred  trade,  so  they  are 
at  liberty  to  prosecute  it,  in  whatever  way  and  at 
whatever  place  they  may  desire.  And  to  this  fact 
we  ought,  doubtless,  to  attribute  much  of  the  un- 
paralleled enterprise  and  prosperity  of  our  country. 
Mr.  Gallatin,  than  whom,  perhaps,  no  one  now  liv- 
ing is  more  capable  of  forming,  on  this  point,  a  cor- 
.  rect  opinion,  uses  this  language  :  "  No  cause  has, 
>/  perhaps,  more  promoted  in  every  respect  the  gen- 
eral  improvement  of  the  United  ,  States,  than  the 
absence  of  those  systems  of  internal  restriction  and 
monopoly  which  continue  to  disfigure  the  state  of 
society  in  other  countries.  No  laws  exist  here  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  confining  men  to  a  particular 
occupation  or  place,  excluding  any  citizen  from  any 
branch  he  may  at  any  time  think  proper  to  pur- 
sue. Industry  is  in  every  respect  free  and  unfet- 
tered ;  every  species  of  trade,  commerce,  and  pro- 
fessions and  manufacture  being  equally  open  to  all, 
without  requiring  any  regular  apprenticeship,  ad- 
mission, or  license.  Hence  the  improvement  of 
America  has  led  not  only  to  the  improvement  of 
her  agriculture,  and  to  the  rapid  formation  and  set- 
tlement of  new  states  in  the  wilderness,  but  her 

expired,  the  young  mechanic  is  obliged,  in  the  phrase  of  the 
country,  to  WANDER  for  three  years.  For  this  purpose  he  is 
furnished,  by  the  master  of  the  craft  in  which  he  has  served  his 
apprenticeship,  with  a  duly  authenticated  wandering  book,  with 
which  he  goes  forth  to  seek  employment ;  and  three  years  must 
be  spent  in  this  way  before  he  can  be  anywhere  admitted  as  a 
master." — Essay  on  the  importance  to  practical  men  of  Scien. 
tific  Knowledge,  &c.,  by  Edward  Everett,  1831. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  279 

citizens  have  extended  her  commerce  to  every  part 
of  the  globe,  and  carry  on  with  complete  success 
even  those  branches  for  which  a  monopoly  had 
heretofore  been  considered  essentially  necessary." 
Now  we  object  to  Trades'  Unions  that  they 
tend  to  destroy  this  freedom,  which  is  the  birth, 
right  of  our  people,  and  the  great  spring  of  their 
prosperity  ;  and  to  substitute  for  it  a  system  of  re- 
strictions more  odious  than  any  known  in  the  rot- 
ten boroughs  of  England  or  the  trading  guilds  of 
Germany.  Journeymen  perceive  that,  if  their  num- 
ber were  reduced,  or  if  their  masters,  instead  of 
employing  a  large  proportion  of  apprentices,  could 
be  compelled  to  employ  only  journeymen,  or  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  them,  the  inevitable  effect 
would  be  to  increase  the  demand  for  their  services, 
and  by  this  means  to  raise  their  wages.  Hence 
the  Unions  propose  to  limit  the  number,  some- 
times of  journeymen,  buV  more  commonly,  of  ap- 
prentices ;  and  to  allow  no  apprentice  to  become  a 
journeyman  till  he  shall  have  passed  through  a  pro- 
tracted term  of  service.  We  are  aware  that  the 
American  Unions  have  not  in  all  cases  avowed 
this  policy,  and  that  many  of  the  more  reflecting 
members  condemn  it.  We  should  be  amazed,  in- 
deed,  if  they  were  prepared  deliberately  to  trans- 
plant to  this  free  and  generous  soil  the  remnants 
of  a  barbarism  which  can  hardly  be  maintained  in 
any  government  of  Europe.  Yet,  averse  as  they 
may  feel  to  it,  they  will  be  constrained,  like  their 
predecessors  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  to 
give  it  place.  "  I  was  not  aware,"  says  a  factory 
commissioner  in  Scotland,  "  until  I  was  engaged  in 
the  investigation  at  Glasgow,  that  the  operatives 


280  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

there  have  so  completely  organized  their  associa- 
tion as  not  only  to  prescribe  the  wages  to  be  paid 
to  the  members  of  the  association,  but  to  all  other 
persons,  from  whatever  quarter  they  may  come  ; 
that,  farther,  no  male  worker,  not  entered  with  them, 
is  allowed  to  work  at  all  without  their  consent  and 
the  concurrence  of  the  association ;  and  never 
without  making  a  payment  to  them  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  continuing  a  weekly  payment  at  the  same 
rent  as  their  own  afterward :  that  females,  however 
able,  are  not  allowed  to  become  spinners,  or  to  be 
engaged  as  such ;  and  that  it  is  hardly  in  the  power 
of  a  piecer,  that  is,  of  an  assistant  to  a  spinner,  to 
learn  the  business  of  a  spinner  unless  he  is  related 
to  a  spinner  who  will  bring  him  forward  ;  that,  in 
short,  the  object  of  the  Glasgow  Association  is  to 
make  their  company  A  CLOSE  CORPORATION,  access- 
ible only  to  those  whom  they  choose  to  admit,  and 
not  only  to  prevent  all  others  from  becoming  spin- 
ners  by  their  regulations,  but,  by  a  system  of  intimi- 
dation, which  they  successfully  carry  into  execution, 
absolutely  by  physical  force."  That  the  same  sys- 
tem has  been  pursued  to  a  considerable  extent  by 
many  of  the  associations  in  this  country,  is  evident 
to  every  one  acquainted  with  their  proceedings,  and 
must  be  apparent,  indeed,  from  the  facts  which  we 
have  already  stated.  It  cannot  be  necessary  for 
us  to  insist  that  it  involves  an.  infraction  of  the 
rights  of  young  men,  and  an  injury  to  the  commu- 
nity even  more  flagrant  than  those  occasioned  by 
the  ancient  restrictions  still  maintained  in  Europe. 
The  latter  originated  at  a  period  when  the  trades 
needed  some  peculiar  privileges  to  enable  them  to 
command  the  services  of  a  sufficient  number  of 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  281 

workmen,  and  to  make  the  requisite  improvements. 
They  are  clearly  defined  by  law,  and  cannot  be 
stretched  to  suit  the  pleasure  of  any  association  ; 
least  of  all,  to  suit  the  pleasure  of  an  irresponsible 
combination.  The  former,  on  the  contrary,  are 
unnecessary  ;  and  they  are  so  entirely  vague,  and 
applied  by  men  so  far  beyond  control,  that  there 
is  not  only  room  for,  but  constant  invitation  to 
abuse.  When  such  attempts  to  fetter  industry  are 
made  by  an  organized  association  in  this  age  and 
in  this  land — made,  too,  by  men  whose  warcry  is 
liberty,  and  who  are  always  denouncing  the  op- 
pression and  hoary  corruptions  of  the  Old  World — 
one  cannot  but  recall  the  language  of  a  great  states, 
man  when  speaking  of  a  kindred  topic  :  "  Seldom," 
says  he,  "  have  two  ages  the  same  fashion  in  their 
pretexts,  and  the  same  modes  of  mischief.  Wick- 
edness is  a  little  more  inventive.  While  you  are 
discussing  the  fashion,  the  fashion  has  gone  by. 
The  very  same  vice  assumes  a,  new  body.  The 
spirit  transmigrates  ;  and,  far  from  losing  its  prin- 
ciple of  life  by  the  change  of  its  appearance,  it  is 
renovated  in  its  new  organs  with  the  fresh  vigour 
of  a  juvenile  activity.  It  walks  abroad,  it  continues 
its  ravages,  while  you  are  gibbeting  the  carcass 
or  demolishing  the  tomb.  You  are  terrifying  your- 
selves with  ghosts  and  apparitions,  while  your 
house  is  the  haunt  of  robbers.  It  is  thus  with  all 
those  who,  attending  only  to  the  shell  and  husk  of 
history,  think  they  are  waging  war  with  intoler- 
ance, pride,  and  cruelty ;  while,  under  colour  of  ab- 
horring the  ill  principles  of  antiquated  parties,  they 
are  authorizing  and  feeding  the  same  odious  vice 
in  different  factions,  and  perhaps  in  worse." 
A  A  2 


\\ 


282  POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

We  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  injustice  in, 
volved  in  the  very  conception  of  Trades'  Unions, 
and  the  still  greater  injustice  perpetrated  by  them 
in  their  course  of  operations.  And,  of  itself,  this 
would  seem  sufficient  to  seal  their  condemnation. 
However  efficient  these  associations  might  be  in 
advancing  the  working  classes,  it  is  a  fatal  objec- 
tion that  they  can  do  so  only  by  inflicting  injury 
on  the  community  at  large.  How  much  more  ob- 
noxious, then,  must  they  be  to  condemnation,  if  we 
succeed  in  proving,  as  we  propose  to  do,  that  they 
must  fail  even  in  this,  their  most  cherished  end ; 
and  that,  instead  of  promoting  the  pecuniary  inter- 
ests  of  working  men,  they  must  ultimately  and  se- 
riously interfere  with  those  interests.  This  con- 
stitutes  our  second  objection  to  Trades'  Unions ; 
that  they  are  working  their  own  discomfiture  by 
contributing  to  reduce,  rather  than  increase,  the  ap- 
propriate influence  of  the  industrious  classes. 

VIII.  EFFECTS  OF  COMBINATIONS  ON  MEMBERS. 

They  do  this  by  disregarding  a  great  and  funda- 
mental law  of  economics ;  by  arraying,  indeed, 
the  whole  force  of  that  law  against  the  pecuniary 
welfare  of  the  labouring  man.  Men  are  strong 
just  in  proportion  as  they  understand  and  respect 
the  inviolable  and  resistless  laws  of  Nature,  which 
are  nothing  less  than  laws  of  God.  While  they 
enlist  such  laws  in  their  behalf,  they  are  mighty. 
When  they  undertake  to  thwart  and  resist  them, 
ultimate  defeat  is  certain.  Now  the  great  law 
which  must  regulate  the  wages  of  all  labour  is 
found  in  the  proportion  between  supply  and  demand ; 
or,  in  other  words,  between  the  number  of  labourers 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  283 

and  the  quantity  of  employment.  If  there  be  many 
labourers  and  little  employment,  as  in  some  older 
countries,  wages  will  be  low,  because  workmen,  in 
their  competition  for  employment,  will  underbid 
each  other.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  there  be  much 
employment  and  but  few  labourers,  wages  must, 
for  a  corresponding  reason,  be  high  ;  since  em- 
ployers  will  compete  for  hands,  and,  consequently, 
overbid  each  other.  If  the  number  of  labourers 
should  be  sufficient  to  meet  the  demand,  wages  in 
such  case  would  be  high  or  low,  according  to  the 
productiveness  of  the  employment,  or,  in  other 
words,  according  to  the  amount  of  profit  yielded  by 
it  to  the  employer.  If  the  number  of  labourers  be- 
come a  little  too  great  for  the  demand,  wages  must 
be  depressed,  and  that  depression,  being  attended 
by  a  kind  of  panic,  will  generally  be  too  sudden 
and  great ;  whereas,  if  the  quantity  of  employment 
be  a  little  too  great,  there  will,  for  a  similar  rea- 
son, be  too  great  and  sudden  a  rise. 

But  little  reflection  is  necessary  to  show  that 
this  law  must  govern  the  rate  of  wages,  in  spite 
alike  of  masters  and  men.  Nothing  can  prevent 
them  from  fluctuating  but  a  combination  of  mas- 
ters and  men  against  the  community,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  regulating  both  the  supply  and  the  demand. 
It  is  by  no  means  in  the  power  of  the  employers, 
as  the  labourer  may  suppose,  to  prevent  an  occa- 
sional fall  in  wages,  any  more  than  it  is  in  the 
power  of  a  grocer  to  prevent  the  commodities  in 
which  he  deals  from  sometimes  falling.  A  grocer, 
doubtless,  would  like  at  all  times  to  obtain  for  such 
commodities  the  very  highest  price  which  was  ever 
paid  for  them.  But  he  well  knows  that  this  is  im- 


284  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

possible :  when  the  market  is  overstocked,  and 
every  dealer  is  anxious  to  sell,  nothing,  it  is  evi- 
dent, can  prevent  a  decline  in  prices  but  a  combi- 
nation among  merchants  throughout  the  country  ; 
and  such  a  combination  would  be  justly  regarded 
by  the  public  as  little  better  than  robbery.  Hence 
the  merchant  consoles  himself,  even  though  he  sells 
at  a  loss,  by  the  reflection  that  the  same  law  which 
induces  this  loss,  will  presently  yield  him,  in  an- 
other quarter,  a  corresponding  gain.  Who  would 
not  resist,  as  equally  inexpedient  and  unjust,  any 
attempt  to  fix  at  an  unalterable  rate  the  price  of 
tea,  sugar,  or  flour  ?  And  who  does  not  see  that 
the  same  principle  must  hold  in  regard  to  the  price 
.of  labour  ?  Suppose  there  is  employment  for  but 
eighty  hands  when  a  hundred  are  in  quest  of  it ; 
inust  tw.enty  of  these  hundred  be  left  unemployed,  to 
starve,  that  the  remaining  eighty  may  receive  full 
wages  ?  Thus  we  are  brought  to  the  conclusion, 
that  if  wages  are  too  low,  they  can  be  raised  per- 
fn.anently  only  by  diminishing,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
supply  of  labour,  or  by  raising,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  demand  for  it.  Now  we  object  to  combina- 
tions and  turn-outs  that  they  are  not  calculated  to 
do  either ;  nay,  that  in  most  cases  they  do,  with 
respect  to  each,  precisely  the  reverse ;  and  thus 
tend  in  two  ways  to  aggravate  the  difficulties  un- 
der which  journeymen  mechanics  are  said  to  la- 
bour.  Instead  of  lessening  the  supply  of  labour, 
they  increase  it;  and,  instead  of  increasing  the  de- 
mand for  it,  they  lessen  that  demand.  This  is  an 
important  point. 

I.  Combinations  and  strikes  tend  to  increase  the 
supply  of  labour,  and  by  that  means  to  dimmish 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  285 

wages.  For  a  brief  season  these  strikes  may  be 
successful,  and  may  occasion  an  advance  in  wages. 
Employers  are  unwilling  to  contend.  It  is  against 
fearful  odds  in  respect  to  numbers,  while  it  tends 
to  interrupt  their  business  and  occasion  severe 
losses  ;  and  they  submit,  therefore,  in  the  hope 
that  relief  may  soon  present  itself.  Now  what 
must  be  the  effect  of  the  advance  in  wages  which 
is  thus  gained  by  the  workman  ?  Previously  higher 
than  wages  in  other  countries,  or  in  other  pursuits 
in  our  own  country,  this  advance  makes  them  a 
still  more  tempting  mark.  The  consequence  is, 
that  more  foreign  mechanics  are  attracted  to  our 
shores  to  compete  with  domestic  labour ;  more 
young  men  are  induced  to  abandon  their  farms, 
and  throng  our  towns  and  cities  in  order  to  learn 
trades.  And,  farther,  since  these  Unions  operate 
with  the  greatest  power  and  success  along  the  sea- 
board,  workmen  linger  there,  waiting  a  rise  of 
wages,  and  carrying  out  a  contest  with  masters, 
when  their  own  welfare  and  that  of  the  country  is  < 
loudly  inviting  them  to  the  West.  Thus  the  very 
success  in  which  the  Union  glories,  soon  raises 
round  its  members  a  large  crowd  of  competitors, 
and  prepares  the  way  for  a  humiliating  reverse. 

Such  reverse  can  be  averted  in  but  one  way, 
and  that  is,  by  converting  each  trade  into  a  close 
corporation ;  putting  up  at  its  entrance  barriers 
over  which  no  one  shall  be  allowed  to  pass  except 
with  the  consent  of  its  members.  But  this  can 
never  be  accomplished  in  America.  It  is  too  re- 
pugnant to  the  spirit  of  the  people.  Indeed,  the 
very  foreigners  who  come  here  to  establish  Trades' 
Unions,  and  enlighten  us  in  regard  to  our  liberties 


286  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

and  rights,  would  be  the  first  to  denounce  such  an 
attempt ;  while  the  great  law  which  must  always 
cause  supply  to  follow  demand,  would  be  sure  to 
defeat  it.  Still  the  attempt  may,  and,  doubtless,  will 
be  made  ;  serving  for  a  while  to  throw  embarrass- 
ments in  the  way  of  the  young  and  enterprising, 
but  recoiling  at  last  on  its  misguided  authors. 

II.  The  only  circumstance  which  could  coun- 
teract this  tendency  in  Trades'  Unions  to  occa- 
sion a  decline  of  wages,  would  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  they  increase  the  demand  for  labour,  and  that 
they  do  this  in  a  greater  degree  than  they  increase 
the  supply.  Should  it  appear  that  such  is,  indeed, 
their  influence,  then  may  they  repair  the  evil  which 
they  must  otherwise  occasion,  and  even  leave  the 
country  better  by  their  establishment.  But  what, 
in  this  respect,  is  the  fact  ?  We  affirm  that  the 
whole  tendency  of  strikes  and  Trades'  Unions  is 
to  lessen  the  demand  for  labour,  even  while  they 
add  to  the  supply. 

They  do  this  in  four  ways  : 

1st.  They  lessen  the  ability  of  the  community  to 
buy  the  products  of  labour.  The  demand  for  any 
one  of  these  products  must  depend,  of  course,  on 
the  number  of  individuals  who  desire  it,  and  who 
possess,  at  the  same  time,  the  ability  to  purchase 
it.  This  number  is  diminished  by  turn-outs  and 
combinations  in  three  respects. 

(a)  A  feeling  of  indignation  is  awakened,  which 
determines  many  persons  to  dispense  with  an  ar- 
ticle altogether  rather  than  submit  to  expedients 
for  enhancing  its  price,  which  they  dislike. 

(b)  Again :    since  raising  the  wages   of  those 
who  are  employed  in  producing  an  article  usually 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  287 

raises  its  price,  it  must  have  the  effect  of  placing 
that  article  beyond  the  reach  of  multitudes  who 
previously  felt  able  to  procure  it,  or,  in  other  words, 
lessens  the  demand  for  it.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
fall  in  the  price  of  any  desired  article  multiplies 
purchases,  and  may  thus  be  the  means  of  advancing, 
for  a  season,  the  wages  of  those  who  produce  it.  i 
(c)  But  a  much  more  important  consideration 
is,  that  strikes,  by  throwing  labourers  out  of  em- 
ployment,  and  by  converting  them,  for  a  time,  into 
mere  consumers,  contribute  much  to  lessen  the 
whole  amount  of  wealth  in  the  community,  and,  of 
course,  to  lessen  its  ability  to  buy  the  products  of 
labour.  If  one  hundred  men,  whose  services  are 
each  worth  a  dollar  per  day,  turn  out,  and  continue 
unemployed  for  thirty  days,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
community  suffers  a  clear  loss  of  $3000,  which  falls 
in  part  on  the  labourer,  in  part  on  the  employer, 
and  in  part  on  the  public  generally.  In  truth,  the 
total  loss  must  amount,  as  we  shall  perceive  here- 
after, to  much  more  than  this  sum  ;  and  it  evidently 
goes  to  diminish,  by  its  whole  amount,  the  ability 
of  those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  buy  the 
products  of  labour  to  buy  farther.  If  the  example 
of  these  men  were  to  be  followed  by  all  labourers, 
so  that  the  whole  community  did  nothing  to  repro- 
duce, but  became  mere  consumers,  it  is  obvious 
that  all  property  would  in  the  end  be  destroyed, 
and  there  would  be  no  capital  either  to  employ 
labour  or  to  purchase  its  products.  And  the  ef- 
fect which  would  thus  ensue  on  the  cessation  of  all 
labour,  must  inevitably  ensue  in  part  wherever  there 
is  a  suspension  of  labour.  It  tends,  by  impoverish- 
ing a  people,  to  lessen  the  number  of  buyers,  and,  of 


288  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

course,  to  diminish  the  demand  for  productive  in- 
dustry. 

2d.  Combinations  and  strikes  lessen  tlie  demand 
for  labour,  by  lessening  the  number  and  ability  of 
employers. 

(a)  The  number  of  employers  in  any  trade,  i.  e., 
the  number  of  persons  who  invest  capital  and  tal- 
ent in  it,  will  be  proportioned  to  the  ease,  certainty, 
and  extent  with  which  profits  can  be  gained.  Now 
all  three  of  these  are  diminished  by  strikes.  Busi- 
ness can  be  conducted  with  little  ease  or  certainty 
when  we  are  liable  every  week  to  have  a  contest 
with  our  workmen :  a  contest  in  which  our  opera- 
tions are  suspended,  our  feelings  harassed,  and,  per- 
haps, most  important  interests  sacrificed.  Hence 
those  already  in  business  are  often  led  by  these 
controversies  to  embrace  the  first  opportunity  of 
escaping  from  it ;  and  others  who  are  looking 
round  for  a  safe  and  agreeable  investment,  are 
careful  to  shun  one  which  is  liable,  to  such  con- 
vulsions. We  have  heard  of  several  cases  in 
which  large  amounts  of  capital  have  been  with- 
drawn from  Great  Britain  merely  on  account  of 
the  losses  and  vexations  occasioned  by  Trades' 
Unions  ;*  and  we  doubt  if  any  employer  ever 

*  "  The  practical  examples  which  I  could  cite  of  detriment 
to  operatives  from  unreasonable  or  unjust  pretensions,  are  nu- 
merous. A  considerable  number  of  lace-frames  were  removed 
from  Nottinghamshire  to  the  western  counties  in  consequence 
of  the  combinations  of  workmen.  In  the  4th  Parliamentary 
Report  respecting  Artisans  and  Machinery,  it  is  related  that 
one  of  the  partners  of  an  extensive  cotton  factory  at  Glasgow, 
fettered  and  annoyed  by  the  constant  interference  of  his  work- 
people, removed  to  the  State  of  New- York,  where  he  re-estab- 
lished his  machinery,  and  thus  afforded  to  a  rival  community  at 
once  a  pattern  of  our  best  machinery,  and  an  example  of  the  best 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  289 

passed  through  the  difficulties  incident  to  a  pro- 
tracted  strike  without  conceiving  a  thorough  dis- 
gust for  the  place  and  for  his  business.  Does  this 
augur  well  for  the  workman?  In  diminishing  the 
number  of  employers,  does  he  not  diminish  the  de- 
mand for  his  own  labour  1  Suppose  the  branch  in 
which  he  is  skilled  should  become  the  abhorrence 
of  all  capitalists,  so  that  no  one  could  be  induced 
to  invest  in  it.  Would  it  not  be  fatal  to  him  ?  How 
but  injurious  can  it  be,  then,  to  render  it  odious  to 
many  or  to  a  few  of  them  ?  We  should  suppose 
that  prudent  men,  who  looked  beyond  the  gratifi- 
cation of  silly  passion  to  a  permanent  improvement 
of  their  condition,  would  desire  to  commend  their 
business  and  themselves  to  the  good-will  of  every 
capitalist  throughout  the  land. 

If  we  consider  strikes  as  they  operate  on  the 
extent  of  profit,  we  shall  find  that  the  effect  is  the 
same.  They  tend,  and  may  be  said  to  aim,  to  re- 
duce the  profits  of  the  employer;  to  transfer  a 
portion  of  them  from  his  pockets  to  those  of  the 
workman.  Now  we  do  not  contend  that  employ, 
ers  receive,  in  no  case,  too  large  a  proportion  of 
the  proceeds  of  a  business;  that. they  in  no  case 
prosper  at  the  expense  of  the  employed.  But  we 
do  say  that  it  is  by  no  means  the  interest  of  the 
Workman  to  reduce  greatly  the  master's  profits. 
There  never  was  a  greater  error  than  to  imagine 
that  large  profits  are  incompatible  with  high  wages, 
and  that  we  can  maintain  the  latter  only  by  de- 
pressing the  former.  The  reverse  is  rather  true ; 

mode  of  using  it.  The  croppers  of  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire, 
and  the  hecklers  or  flax-dressers,  can '  unfold  a  tale  of  wo'  on  this 
very  subject."— Wade's  History  of  the  Working  Classes,  p.  282. 

BB 


290  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

for,  let  it  be  considered,  what  must  be  the  natural 
effect  of  high  profits  1  Evidently  it  must  be  to  at- 
tract other  capitalists  into  the  business,  thus  to  mul- 
tiply employers,  and,  by  exciting  a  competition 
among  them  in  their  demand  for  labour,  to  raise 
wages.  On  the  other  hand,  depress  profits,  and 
you  drive  many  from  the  business,  while  you  deter 
others  from  entering  it.  Facts  demonstrate  the 
truth,  as  argument  does  the  reasonableness,  of  this 
doctrine.  In  no  country  has  the  employer  and  the 
capitalist  received  larger  returns  than  in  this,  and 
in  none  has  the  labourer  received  higher  wages. 
As,  on  one  hand,  capital  increases  in  a  country  in 
proportion  to  the  profits  received  from  trade,  man- 
ufactures, &c.,  so,  on  the  other,  whenever  it  in- 
creases faster  than  the  population,  the  demand  for 
labour  will  constantly  rise  faster  than  the  supply, 
and  the  rate  of  wages,  reckoned  by  the  comforts 
over  which  they  give  the  workmen  command,  will 
gradually,  though  perhaps  slowly,  increase.  Such 
has  been  the  case  in  this  country,  as  Mr.  Carey  has 
shown  at  length  in  his  work  on  Wages.  Though 
there  may  be  causes  in  particular  places  or  coun- 
tries, such  as  excessive  competition,  a  sudden  rise 
in  rents  or  taxation,  to  counteract  the  operation  of 
this  law,  yet  its  truth  stands  unshaken,  and  has  re- 
ceived among  us  the  amplest  confirmation. 

(b)  Thus,  then,  do  strikes  contribute  to  lessen 
the  demand  for  labour,  and,  by  consequence,  the 
rate  of  wages,  inasmuch  as  they  lessen  the  num- 
ber of  employers  and  the  amount  of  capital  invest- 
ed in  a  trade.  They  tend  yet  farther  to  the  same 
result  by  lessening  the  ability  of  employers.  By 
every  strike  the  whole  community  suffers  loss. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  291 

Not  an  individual  escapes.  The  workman  is  the 
greatest  loser  in  proportion  to  his  means.  The 
employer  is  vastly  the  greater  loser  in  amount. 
He  loses  interest  on  the  capital  which  he  has  in- 
vested in  machinery,  materials,  &c.,  for  a  period 
equal  to  the  continuance  of  the  strike.  He  loses 
by  the  injury  which  this. machinery  and  material 
suffers  from  lying  unemployed.  He  loses  yet 
farther  by  having  his  plans  frustrated,  his  con- 
tracts  rendered  void,  and,  perhaps,  his  credit  shaken 
or  ruined.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  strikes  do 
give  to  workmen  a  great  and  fearful  power  over 
the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  employers.  But  it 
is  a  power  which  they  no  sooner  wield  than  it  re- 
coils with  redoubled  and  fatal  violence  upon  them- 
selves. Workmen  sometimes  exult  in  the  fact  that 
they  can  ruin  their  masters.  But  would  it  not  be 
wise  for  them  to  consider  whether,  in  striking  that 
blow,  they  do  not  strike  also  at  the  foundation  of 
their  own  prosperity  ?  Suppose  the  work  of  ruin 
should  advance  until  all  employers  were  prostrated, 
and  all  capital  destroyed  or  driven  from  their  branch 
of  business.  Would  it  be  a  victory  to  triumph 
over  ?  Would  not  the  very  same  note  that  sound- 
ed that  victory,  sound  yet  louder  the  knell  of  their 
own  best  hopes  1  Where  would  the  men  be,  if 
there  were  no  employers  to  hire  and  pay  them  ? 
And  if  the  ruin  of  all  the  employers  would  inevi- 
tably be  the  ruin  of  all  the  men,  then  surely  the 
ruin  of  some  of  the  employers  can  hardly  redound 
to  the  advantage  of  any  of  the  men. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  the  rate  of 
wages  must  always  depend  on  the  ability  of  the 
community  in  which  the  labourer  lives,  first  to 


292  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

produce,  and  then  to  buy,  the  fruits  of  his  indus- 
try ;  and  that,  since  strikes  tend  directly  to  lessen 
such  ability,  they  must,  in  the  end,  lessen  the  de- 
mand for  labour,  and,  of  course,  its  wages.  There 
is  another  way,  also,  in  which  this  same  tendency 
must  manifest  itself.  Much  of  the  industry  of  this 
country  is  employed  in  competing  with  foreign  in- 
dustry, i.  e.,  in  producing  articles  like  those  which 
foreign  nations  pour  in  upon  us  ;  and,  of  course,  this 
industry  can  be  sustained  only  so  long  as  it  furnish- 
es the  native  commodity  at  a  rate  cheaper  than  that 
which  must  be  paid  for  an  imported  one  of  the  same 
quality.  But  any  material  advance  in  the  wages 
paid  to  workmen  would  render  this  impossible; 
employers  would  find  it  necessary  to  abandon  such 
branches  of  business,  and  the  workman  would  be 
left  without  occupation, 

3d.  There  is  another  way  in  which  strikes  and 
combinations  tend  to  depress  wages,  and  that  is,  by 
the  introduction  of  machinery.  We  are  far  from 
believing  that  machinery  has  any  permanent  ten- 
dency to  injure  the  labouring  classes  or  to  diminish 
the  demand  for  labour.  On  the  contrary,  we  be- 
lieve, and  all  experience  proves,  that  by  cheapen- 
ing the  products  of  labour,  and  thus  increasing  the 
demand  for  them,  such  improvements  ultimately 
put  in  requisition  more  hands  than  they  suppress. 
Still  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the  immediate  effect 
of  substituting  automatic  for  manual  labour  is  to 
throw  a  number  of  men  out  of  employment ;  and,  by 
overstocking  the  market  of  labour,  to  occasion  a  tem- 
porary depression  in  wages.  And  it  is  this  imme- 
diate effect  of  machinery  which  labourers  so  much 
dread.  Having  neglected,  in  many  cases,  to  make 


POLITICAL    ECONOMY.  293 

provision  for  the  future,  they  can  ill  afford  to  wait 
for  remote,  and,  as  they  think,  impossible  advan- 
tages ;  and  hence  the  deep  dislike  and  alarm  with 
which  they  contemplate  any  proposed  invention. 
Now  the  point  to  which  we  would  ask  the  partic- 
ular attention  of  the  Trades'  Union  is,  that  by 
combination  and  strikes  they  inevitably  multiply 
such  inventions.  Proprietors  who  have  been  once 
subjected  to  the  dictation  of  their  men,  will  be 
found  most  anxious  to  replace  those  men  by  agents 
that  can  neither  strike,  nor  tire,  nor  murmur ;  by 
agents,  too,  that  move  with  a  precision  and  a  pow- 
er unattainable  by  man.  If  such  agents  have  not 
yet  been  devised,  science  will  be  laid  under  con- 
tributions to  furnish  them,  and  money  will  be  paid 
freely,  and  even  lavishly,  to  quicken  the  flagging 
steps  of  invention.  It  is  a  fact,  which  ought  to  be 
imprinted  on  the  minds  of  these  men,  that  some  of 
the  noblest  triumphs  of  modern  art  have  had  their 
origin  in  the  oppressive  and  disorderly  combina- 
tions of  workmen ;  and  that  scarcely  one  memo- 
rable strike  has  taken  place  in  Great  Britain  with- 
in the  last  twenty  years,  that  did  not  give  rise  to 
the  introduction  of  new  and  important  labour-sa- 
ving machinery.* 

*  "  During  my  late  residence  among  the  factories,  several 
facts  illustrative  of  the  injuries  inflicted  on  their  own  body  by 
the  Unions  pressed  themselves  on  my  consideration.  The  fine 
spinners  in  Manchester,  who  have  long  enjoyed  the  highest 
wages  of  almost  any  class  of  workmen  in  the  world,  and  are 
still,  as  we  have  shown,  liberally  paid,  were  the  first  who  began 
to  exercise  control  over  their  masters,  and  to  convert  their 
trade  into  an  exclusive  corporation  in  the  rotten-borough  style.f 

I  "  I  recollect  a  turn-out  in  1802,  which  lasted  from  fourteen  to  fifteen 
•weeks ;  that  was  for  wages ;  and  at  that  time  a  good  mule-spinner  could 
obtain  60s.  ($14  to  15),  and  the  turn-out  was  among  them,  as  it  alwaya 


294  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

4th.  We  have  thus  pointed  out  several  ways  in 
which  these  associations  would  ultimately  operate 

The  masters  finding,  after  many  struggles  renewed  from  time 
to  time,  that  a  reduction  of  wages  commensurate  with  the  fall 
in  the  price  of  goods  could  not  be  effected,  had  recourse  to  an 
expedient  which  the  workmen  could  not  decently  oppose,  be- 
cause its  direct  tendency  was  to  raise,  or,  at  least,  to  uphold  the 
wages  of  each  spinner,  although  it  diminished  the  numbers  ne- 
cessary for  the  same  quantity  of  work.  This  expedient  con- 
sisted in  enlarging  the  spinning-frames,  so  that  one  spinner 
comes  to  manage  a  pair  of  mules  containing  from  1500  to  2000 
spindles,  and  to  supersede  the  labour  of  one  or  two  companion 
spinners.  I  am  well  assured  that,  but  for  the  extravagant  pre- 
tensions of  the  ruling  committee,  this  catastrophe  would  not 
have  befallen  the  operatives  for  many  a  day  to  come,  for  two 
reasons ;  because,  first,  the  extension  of  the  mule  is  a  very 
costly  affair ;  and,  secondly,  it  requires  the  line  of  spindles  to 
be  placed  parallel  to  the  length  of  the  apartments  instead  of 
their  breadth— the  position  generally  designed,  and  the  one  best 
suited  for  throwing  light  on  the  yarns." 

So  in  the  factories  for  spinning  coarse  yarn  for  calicoes,  fus- 
tians, and  other  heavy  goods.  "  During  a  disastrous  strike  at 
Hyde,  Stayley-bridge,  and  the  adjoining  factory  townships,  sev- 
eral of  the  capitalists,  afraid,  of  their  business  being  driven  to 
France,  Belgium,  or  the  United  States,  had  recourse  to  the  cel- 
ebrated machinists,  Messrs.  Sharp  and  Co.,  of  Manchester,  re- 
questing them  to  direct  the  inventive  talents  of  their  partner, 
Mr.  Roberts,  to  the  construction  of  a  self-acting  mule.  The 
problem  did  not  puzzle  him  long  ;  for,  to  the  delight  of  the  mill- 
owners,  who  ceased  not  to  stimulate  his  exertions  by  frequent 
visitations,  he  produced,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  a  ma- 
chine apparently  instinct  with  the  thought,  feeling,  and  tact  of 
an  experienced  workman.  The  news  of  this  iron  man,  as  the 
operatives  fitly  called  it,  spread  dismay  through  the  Union  ;  and, 
long  before  it  left  its  cradle,  so  to  speak,  it  strangled  the  Hydra 
of  misrule." 

"  Another  illustration  of  this  truth  occurs  in  modern  calico- 
printing.  In  the  spirit  of  Egyptian  taskmasters,  the  operative 
printers  dictated  to  the  manufacturer  the  number  and  quality  of 
the  apprentices  to  be  admitted  into  the  trade,  the  hours  of  their 
own  labour,  and  the  wages  to  be  paid  them.  At  length  capital- 
ists sought  deliverance  from  this  bondage  in  the  resources  of 
science;  and  the  four  and  five  colour  machines,  which  now 

has  been ;  those  who  get  moderate  wages  never  turn  out."— Aaron  Lees, 
Esq.,  in  First  Factory  Comm.  Keport,  D.  2,  p.  91. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  295 

to  reduce  wages,  even  if  they  were  left  to  them- 
selves. But  this  can  hardly  be  hoped.  There  is 
another  result  still  more  disastrous,  to  which  they 
clearly  tend,  and  which  already  begins  to  manifest 
itself.  This  is,  the  formation  of  hostile  combina- 
tions among  the  masters.  None  can  reprobate 
more  heartily  than  we  do  confederacies  among 
those  whose  wealth  gives  them  a  commanding  in- 
fluence over  the  welfare  and  subsistence  of  the 
working  classes.  But  if  they  are  in  danger  of 
being  the  victims  of  a  confederacy,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  they  should  seek  to  enlist  in  their  de- 
fence an  instrument  which  is  likely  to  prove  so  fa- 
tal when  directed  against  them.  In  England  this 
means  of  protection  has  not  always  been  resorted 
to,  because  proprietors  are  engaged  in  so  active 
and  keen  a  competition  among  themselves  as  to 
render  concert  and  co-operation  almost  impossible. 
But  in  this  country,  where  competition  is  less  close, 
and  is  conducted  on  more  generous  principles; 
where  the  workman,  too,  has  so  little  just  cause 
for  complaint,  and  is  able  to  exercise  so  powerful 
an  influence,  there  is  every  motive  which  interest 
or  sympathy  can  supply  to  produce  union  among 
the  employers.  It  will  be  produced.  Already 

render  calico-printing  an  unerring  and  expeditious  process,  are 
the  results. " 

"  One  day  I  observed  placards  posted  throughout  Manchester, 
announcing  that  a  considerable  number  of  yarn-dressers  for 
power-loom  weaving  were  wanted  at  a  well-established  factory, 
and  I  was  led  to  conclude  that  some  of  the  best-paid  artisans 
had  become  refractory.  A  short  time  after,  on  entering  the  en- 
gineering workshops  of  Mr.  Lillie,  I  descried  the  corollary  of 
the  strike  in  the  form  of  a  new  apparatus,  preparing  for  the 
purpose  of  making  free  labourers  to  dress  warp  as  well  as  the 
monopolists,  and  with  threefold  expedition."— Dr.  Ure's  Phi- 
losophy of  Manufactures,  p.  365,  et  seq. 


296  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

the  first  steps  are  taken.  In  some  trades  and 
places,  the  rallying- point  has  been  established; 
and  it  is  for  the  Unions  to  say  whether  there 
shall  not  be  a  gathering  of  all  master  mechanics, 
who  would  enjoy  the  privilege  of  controlling  their 
own  concerns,  and  escape  the  tyranny  of  a  dark 
and  irresponsible  junto.  Should  such  a  contest, 
so  organized,  ensue,  we  need  hardly  say  what 
must  be  its  issue :  a  contest  in  which  men  with 
capital,  talent,  and  influence,  upheld  by  the  sup- 
port and  sympathy  of  all  other  classes  of  their 
fellow-citizens — cheered  on,  too,  we  might  add,  by 
the  friends  of  liberty  and  good  order  throughout 
the  world,  are  arrayed  against  those  who  have  no 
capital,  who  are  without  sympathy  even  in  their 
own  families,*  and  who  have  no  power  but  the 
reckless  power  of  a  mob.  There  may  be  violence 
and  wasting  destruction.  The  torch  of  the  incen- 
diary may  be  applied  to  the  shop,  and  even  to  the 
dwelling  of  the  master.  It  may  become  unsafe  for 
him  to  go  forth  by  night,  or  even  by  day.  Still 
the  issue  is  none  the  less  certain.  Workmen  cannot 
long  subsist  without  food.  Outrages  such  as  we 
have  referred  to  cannot  be  perpetrated  often,  and 
yet  escape  the  arm  of  the  law.  In  a  country  where 
four  fifths  of  the  people  belong  to  the  agricultural 
class,  and  find  themselves  injured  by  the  proceed, 
ings  of  Trades'  Unions — where  cities,  too,  are  not 
yet  so  vast  and  so  corrupt  as  to  place  all  law  at 
defiance,  combined  workmen  have  little  to  expect 
in  the  way  either  of  victory  or  of  immunity.  De- 
feat, punishment,  and  abject  submission  must  be  the 

*  It  is  difficult,  we  believe,  to  find  advocates  of  Trades'  Unions 
among  the  wives  of  the  members. 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  297 

result  of  a  protracted  and  organized  contest.  Nor 
will  that  be  all.  The  men,  by  that  contest,  will  have 
taught  their  employers  the  fell  power  of  a  combina- 
tion. They  will  have  extinguished  their  kindly  feel, 
ings,  and  transformed  them  from  friends  into  foes. 
The  public,  weary  at  last  of  the  din  of  the  conflict, 
may  turn  away,  and  leave  both  parties  to  seek  mu- 
tual redress  and  retaliation  in  one  unending  series 
of  wrongs.  Is  this  a  consummation  to  be  wished  ? 
Is  it  well  that  different  orders  of  our  people  should 
thus  be  arrayed  in  deadly  feud  ;  a  feud  which  must 
make  the  poor  poorer,  and  teach  the  rich  to  riot 
and  glory  in  oppression  ?  Of  all  states  of  society, 
we  can  imagine  none  more  lamentable  or  fatal. 
Let  it  once  arise  and  continue,  and  servile  classes 
must  be  formed,  servile  wars  ensue,  castes,  privi- 
leged and  unprivileged,  be  established ;  and  this, 
the  chosen  land  of  freedom,  become  the  land  of 
bondage  and  degradation.  We  do  not  contend 
that  all  these  evils  are  to  be  the  consequence  of  the 
present  struggle  between  workmen  and  their  em- 
ployers. But  we  do  say  that  such  a  struggle  can- 
not perpetuate  itself,  and  be  extended  till  it  comes 
to  embroil  men  of  all  classes  and  pursuits,  without 
ending  in  a  catastrophe  too  dreadful  to  think  of. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  all  these  evils 
might  be  avoided  if  Trades'  Unions  could  embrace 
both  masters  and  men,  and  thus  arrange,  by  mu- 
tual agreement,  the  rate  of  wages.  In  this  way  all 
collision  of  interests  might  be  prevented,  and  both 
parties  participate  in  due  proportion  of  the  profits 
of  business.  And  such,  we  appprehend,  is  the 
hope  and  expectation  of  the  more  reflecting  and 
conscientious  members  of  the  Union,  who  have 
joined  it,  not  from  factious  motives,  but  from  the 


298  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

honest  desire  of  advancing  their  own  order.  But 
even  to  such  a  plan  there  are  insuperable  objec- 
tions. All  history  testifies  that  such  combinations 
will,  in  the  end,  prove  to  be  combinations  of  one 
class  against  the  rest  of  the  community  ;  plans  to 
advance  the  interests  of  a  part  at  the  expense  of 
the  whole.  The  experiment  was  tried  for  ages  in 
Europe.  Boroughs,  corporations,  and  guilds  were 
all  so  many  unions  of  masters  and  journeymen  in 
order  to  regulate  the  hours  of  labour,  the  number 
of  workmen,  and  the  rate  of  wages  ;  and  the  con- 
sequence was,  that  they  "felt  power  and  forgot 
right ;"  exacted  prices  from  the  purchaser,  and 
placed  restrictions  in  the  way  of  industry  which 
proved  intolerable.  The  rise  of  Birmingham, 
Manchester,  Leeds,  and  other  great  trading  towns, 
is  to  be  traced  directly  to  the  oppressive  power 
wielded  by  neighbouring  boroughs  ;  a  power  which, 
in  effect,  levied  contributions  on  all  the  rest  of  the 
community,  and  suffered  no  man  to  engage  in  trade 
except  as  it  suited  their  pleasure.  Nor  are  such 
combinations  objectionable  merely  on  account  of 
the  injustice  done  to  those  not  comprehended  in 
them.  In  the  course  of  time  they  call  down  retri- 
bution on  themselves.  By  enhancing  the  cost  of 
articles  to  the  consumer,  they  impel  him  to  dis- 
pense with  them  if  it  be  possible,  and  thus  they 
tend  directly  to  diminish  the  value  of  the  labour 
which  is  employed  in  producing  them.  Take  the 
following  case,  in  which  the  whole  power  of  the 
British  Parliament  was  invoked  to  sustain  such  a 
combination,  and  invoked  in  vain  :  "  The  mechan- 
ics, connected  with  the  mystery  of  drapers,  incor- 
porated in  the  town  of  Shrewsbury,  complained 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  299 

that  artificers,  neither  belonging  to  their  company 
nor  brought  up  to  their  trade,  '  had  of  late,  with 
great  disorder,  upon  a  mere  covetous  desire  and 
mind,  intromitted  with  and  occupied  the  said  trade, 
having  no  knowledge,  skill,  or  experience  of  the 
same,  and  do  buy,  commonly  and  daily,  such  Welsh 
cloths  and  flannels  as  is  defective,  and  not  truly 
made,  to  the  impeachment  and  hinderance  of  600 
people  of  the  art  or  science  of  sheermen  or  frizers 
within  the  said  town,  whereby  as  well  they  as 
their  poor  wives  and  families  are  wholly  maintain, 
ed.'  The  Legislature  listened  to  this  representation, 
and  expelled  the  rival  artisans.  (8  Eliz.,  c.  7.) 
Six  years  after,  the  act  was  repealed,  with  an 
avowal  that  '  it  is  now  likely  to  be  the  very  greatest 
cause  of  the  impoverishing  and  undoing  of  the  poor 
artificers  and  others,  at  whose  suit  the  said  act  was 
procured ;  for  that  there  be  now,  since  the  passing 
of  the  said  act,  much  fewer  persons  to  set  them  to 
work  than  before.'  (14  Eliz.,  c.  12.)" 

We  have  thus  spoken  of  the  influence  which 
Trades'  Unions  are  likely  to  exert  in  lowering  the 
wages  of  workmen,  involving  them  in  contests  with 
their  employers,  and  preparing  the  way  for  their 
permanent  depression.  There  is  another  evil  re- 
sulting from  them  which  merits  solemn  consider- 
ation. It  is  the  moral  debasement  to  which  they 
lead.  They  congregate  workmen,  night  after 
night,  in  tumultuous  assemblies,  where  their  pas- 
sions are  inflamed-  and  their  principles  poisoned. 
Possessed  with  the  notion  that  the  working  class- 
es are  oppressed — that  their  sufferings  are  not  the 
consequence  of  their  own  errors  or  misconduct,  but 
of  the  injustice  of  others — these  clubs  make  it  the 


300  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

interest  and  the  duty  of  every  member  to  strength, 
en  such  impression  in  his  own  mind,  and  to  com. 
municate  it  to  others.  Hence  come  discontent  and 
insubordination.  From  discontent  and  insubordi- 
nation come  strikes ;  and  strikes  take  men  from 
their  proper  pursuits,  to  spend  whole  days  in  the 
streets  or  at  the  alehouse.  Thus  habits  of  indus- 
try are  weakened  or  destroyed  ;  and  the  mechanic, 
accustomed,  meanwhile,  to  draw  subsistence  from 
the  treasury  of  the  Union,  loses  that  lofty  spirit  of 
independence,  and  that  provident  concern  for  the 
future,  which  are  the  best  security  against  both  op- 
pression and  want.  Tippling  and  gambling,  of 
course,  are  called  in  to  fill  up  the  vacant  hours ; 
and  it  is  a  fact,  that  men  pass  through  but  one  or 
two  strikes  before  they  become  careless  in  regard 
to  their  families,  neglectful  of  their  business,  and 
dissipated  in  their  habits.  On  this  point  the  ten- 
dencies are  so  evident,  and  the  facts  so  numerous 
and  incontestible,  that  we  need  not  enlarge. 

We  have  dwelt  at  such  length  upon  the  char- 
acter of  Trades'  Unions,  because  they  appear  to 
us  to  represent  some  of  the  most  striking  tenden- 
cies, and  to  imbody  some  of  the  most  dangerous 
heresies  of  the  age.  They  exhibit,  on  a  small 
scale,  the  disposition  so  widely  prevalent  in  this 
country,  to  substitute  the  power  of  associations  or 
parties  for  the  authority  of  law,  and  to  gain  un- 
righteous advantages  by  means  of  disciplined  and 
confederated  numbers.  They  exhibit,  too,  the 
alarming  disposition  which  prevails  among  us,  to 
excite  and  foster  jealousies  between  those  who 
ought  to  be  perfectly  united,  and  who,  according 
to  the  theory  of  our  government,  are  all  working 


POLITICAL   ECONOMY.  301 

men  and  all  gentlemen.  Their  whole  strength  they 
derive  from  the  notion  that  there  is  an  essential 
opposition  between  the  rights  of  capitalists  and  la- 
bourers ;  that  the  one  class  can  be  sustained  and 
advanced  only  by  crippling  the  other.  This  error, 
in  which  they  take  their  rise,  they  contribute  fear- 
fully  to  strengthen  and  extend.  We  would  hold  it 
up,  therefore,  to  the  consideration  of  the  philan- 
thropist and  patriot.  If  they  would  see  the  spirit 
of  misrule  and  licentiousness  exorcised,  they  must 
labour  more  strenuously  to  let  in  light  upon  its  dark 
retreats.  They  must  themselves  strive,  and  incite 
others  to  strive,  that  the  knowledge  of  correct 
principles  and  the  influence  of  Christian  morality 
be  spread  among  all  the  people.  The  zeal  for 
monopolies  has  been  shaken  among  the  mercantile 
class,  because  they  have  gradually  acquired  more 
just  and  enlarged  views  of  their  own  interests. 
Could  such  views  be  more  thoroughly  dissemina- 
ted among  the  labouring  classes,  they  too  would 
discover  that  they  need  no  protection  from  orga- 
nized Unions ;  and  that  they  best  consult  their  own 
prosperity,  when  they  most  respect  the  rights  and 
prosperity  of  others.  But,  above  all,  should  re- 
doubled  efforts  be  made  to  spread  among  our  coun- 
trymen the  influence  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion. 
Without  this,  we  are  lost :  we  may  be  lost  soon. 
Even  now  there  is  much  in  this  young  and  favour- 
ed land  to  awaken  melancholy  forebodings.  Load- 
ed with  blessings,  which  make  us  the  envy  and  ad- 
miration of  labouring  men  throughout  the  world, 
we  are  yet  discontented  and  factious.  Clamorous 
in  the  praise  of  our  peculiar  institutions,  we  yet 
seem  to  understand  but  poorly  their  true  nature  or 
C  c 


302  POLITICAL   ECONOMY. 

value,  or  the  dangers  to  which  they  are  exposed. 
Dependant  for  all  our  order  and  future  welfare  on 
the  due  administration  of  law,  we  are  yet  constant- 
ly taking  or  submitting  to  measures  which  tend  to 
prostrate  the  influence  of  courts  and  to  overthrow 
the  authority  of  magistrates.  Allegiance  to  party 
is  getting  to  be  rewarded,  we  had  almost  said  hon-  * 
oured,  before  allegiance  to  country ;  while  inde- 
pendence of  individual  opinion  and  feeling  is  crush- 
ed under  the  ruthless  car  of  popular  passion  and 
prejudice.  Is  there  nothing  in  such  a  state  of 
things  to  excite  alarm  ?  Is  it  not  time,  more  than 
time,  that  all  who  love  their  country  should  com- 
bine to  stay  the  progress  of  dangerous  errors,  to 
allay  the  violence  of  faction,  to  promote  kind  feel- 
ings among  the  various  classes  of  our  people,  and 
to  build  about  our  lovely  heritage  the  sacred  de- 
fences of  piety  and  truth ! 


SUMMARY  OF  PRINCIPLES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DEFINITION   AND   LIMITATION   OF   THE   SCIENCE. 

1.  Political  Economy  shows  how  the  happiness 
of  a  nation  can  be  best  promoted  by  the  production 
and  distribution  of  wealth. 

2.  It  is  limited, 

1st,  By  its  object,  which  is  happiness,  only  so 
far  as  that  happiness  depends  on,  or  is  influ- 
enced by  wealth. 

3d,  By  its  evidence,  which  is  probable  or  mor- 
al, not  certain  or  demonstrative. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RELATION   OF   WEALTH,   LABOUR,   AND   HAPPINESS. 

1.  Wealth  comprehends  whatever  has  exchange- 
able value,  or,  in  other  words,  "  all  the  purchase- 
able  means  of  human  enjoyment." 

2.  Exchangeable  value  is  given  to  different  ob- 
jects according, 

1.  To  prevailing  taste. 

2.  To  proportion  between  demand  and  supply. 

3.  To  amount  of  labour  expended  on  their 
production. 


304  SUMMARY    OP   PRINCIPLES. 

3.  Usually  nothing  has  exchangeable  value  un- 
less labour  has  been  applied  to  it. 

4.  Labour  is  exertion  for  the  sake  of  gain,  which 
creates  new  or  adds  to  pre-existing  values. 

5.  Labour    conduces    to    happiness   not   only 
through  the  values  which  it  creates,  but  also  by 
affording  occupation. 

6.  The  severity  of  particular  kinds  of  labour  is 
qualified  in  some  cases  by  the  peculiar  taste  of  the 
individual  ;  in  all  by  habit,  and  by  increased  com- 
pensation, or  by  the  little  knowledge  and  mental 
effort  required. 

7.  Labour,  in  order  to  conduce  both  to  happi- 
ness and  production,  must  be, 

1.  Free  in  respect  to  direction  and  quantity. 

2.  Remunerated.     Remuneration   should   be 
sufficient  to  supply  food,  clothing,  comforts, 
and  instruction  to  the  labourer  and  his  fam- 
ily ;  and  also  to  afford  a  fund  for  sickness, 
want  of  employment,  and  old  age. 

8.  The  happiness  produced  by  a  nation's  wealth 
is  to  be  measured,  not  by  the  aggregate  amount  of 
such  wealth,  but  by  the  number  of  persons  whom 
it  subsists  in  comfort. 

9.  To  subsist  in  comfort  requires,  not  luxuries, 
but  a  supply  for  our  physical,  intellectual,  and  mor- 
al wants. 

10.  Therefore  the  great  object  of  Economical 
Policy  should  be  to  secure  such  a  supply  for  the 
greatest  possible  number  of  people. 


SUMMARY    OF   PRINCIPLES.  305 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CONDITIONS   OR   ELEMENTS   OF   PRODUCTION. 

These  are :  * 

1.  Labour,  which  has  been  discussed. 

2.  Private  property,  as  opposed  to  community  of 
goods.     This  is  founded, 

1.  In  right;  every  man  being  entitled  to  ex- 
clusive possession  and  control  of  the  fruits 
of  his  own  industry. 

2.  Inexpediency;  since  men,  if  free  to  appro- 
priate to  themselves  the  results  of  their  la- 
bour,  will  be  free  also  to  select  the  occupa- 
tion in  which  he  can  produce  most,  and  will, 
at  the  same  time,  be  disposed  to  do  more 
work,  and  to  do  it  better  than  if  the  pro- 
ceeds were  to  go  to  the  community. 

3.  Land,  including  all  natural  powers  and  agents 
which  can  be  employed  in  production. 

4.  Capital,  i.  e.,  the  results  of  previous  labour 
saved  by  abstinence  from  immediate  gratification, 
and  employed  (whether  as  tools,  machines,  mate- 
rials, subsistence  for  labourers,  or  money)  in  re- 
production. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MEANS  OF  INCREASING  THE  PRODUCTIVENESS  OF 
LABOUR. 

The  general  means  treated  of  in  this  chapter  is 
CO-OPERATION,  which  may  be  resolved  into, 
Cc  2 


306  SUMMARY    OF  PRINCIPLES. 

1.  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.     This  is  indispensable 
to  any  except  the  most  scanty  production. 

(a)  It  augments  production  : 

1.  By  leading  to  increased  skill  and  manual 
dexterity  in  workmen. 

2.  By  saving  time  and  economizing  power. 

3.  By  occasioning  the  invention  of  tools,  ma- 
chines,  and  new  processes. 

These  advantages  hold  with  respect  to  intellect- 
ual as  well  as  to  manual  labour. 

(b)  It  arranges  itself  spontaneously  under  the 
guidance  of  individual  self-interest,  &c.,  and 
operates  without  jar  or  disturbance,  as  we  see 
in  the  supply  of  a  great  city  with  food. 

2.  EXCHANGE.     This  is  inseparable  from  divi- 
sion of  labour.     It  takes  the  form  of, 

(a)  Barter,  i.  e.,  exchange  of  commodity  against 
commodity. 

(b)  Currency,  i.  e.,  exchange  through  a  common 
medium  called  money. 

(c)  Credit.   Utility  of  credit  exemplified  in  Scot- 
land  and  Bank  of  England. 

For  money,  no  substance  is  so  good  as  the  pre- 
cious metals,  because, 

1.  They  best  serve  as  a  common  measure  of 
value,  being  liable  to  the  least  fluctuation. 

2.  They  are  best  fitted  as  a  circulating  me- 
dium, since  they  are 

(a)  universally  esteemed  : 

(b)  do  not  lose  much  value  by  use  or  time 

(c)  contain  much  value  in  small  bulk : 

(d)  admit  of  convenient  subdivision : 

(e)  can  be  stamped. 


StJMMARY  OF   PRINCIPLES.  307 


CHAPTER  V. 

COMPENSATION   OF  LABOUR,  OR  WAGES. 

1.  By  wages  we  mean  that  portion  of  the  joint 
produce  of  capital  and  labour  which  falls  to  the  la- 
bourer's share. 

Scholium.  In  this  chapter  we  mean  real,  not 
money  wages ;  i.  e.,  wages  estimated  by  their  pow- 
er of  purchasing  subsistence,  not  by  their  nominal 
amount. 

2.  As  labour  becomes  more  productive  through 
subdivision  of  employments,  machinery,  and  facil- 
itation of  exchanges,  wages  ought  to  rise. 

3.  Such  would  be  the  case  if  labour  and  ex. 
changes  were  not  unnecessarily  embarrassed  by 
law,  by  combinations,  or  by  ignorance. 

4.  Under  the  most  equitable  system,  however, 
the  wages  in  different  employments  would  be  une- 
qual.    They  must  and  ought  to  be  proportioned, 

I.  To  the  productiveness  of  the  labour,  which 
will  depend, 

1.  On  the  labourer's  ability,  natural  or  ac- 
quired. 

2.  On  his  moral  worth  or  honesty,  <fec. 

II.  To  the  time  and  expense  previously  re- 
quired to  prepare  and  educate  the  labourer. 

HI.  To  the  scarcity  of  such  ability;  which 
scarcity  tends  continually  to  decrease  from 
spread  of  "knowledge,  competition,  &c. 

5.  When  wages  are  permanently  insufficient  for 
the  comfortable  support  of  the  labourer,  it  must  be 
owing  to  his  vice,  ignorance,  and  improvidence, 


308  SUMMARY    OF    PRINCIPLES.      ' 

which  depreciate  the  value  of  his  services,  or  to 
defects  in  the  laws  and  usages  which  regulate  his 
compensation.  The  first  can  be  obviated  only  by 
raising  the  character  of  the  labourer ;  the  second 
partly  by  legislation,  but  more  by  the  efforts  of  en- 
lightened and  philanthropic  public  sentiment. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAND — AND   THE  CONNEXION  BETWEEN   ITS  PRODUC- 
TIVENESS AND  THE  TENURE  BY  WHICH  IT  IS  HELD. 

1.  By  land,  Political   Economists   understand 
whatever  natural  powers  (whether  of  soil,  miner- 
als, or  water)  are  attached  to  the  earth's  surface. 

2.  These  powers  become  productive  only  when 
combined  with  labour  ;  with  labour  they  can  be 
combined  to  no  great  extent  till  they  are  appro- 
priated.    Hence, 

3.  Property  in  land  is  the  first  and  most  essen- 
tial condition  of  all  production. 

4.  This  property  is  held  by  various  tenures ; 
&nd,  according  to  the  tenures,  other  things  being 
equal,  will  be  the  productiveness. 

I.  In  Asia,  the  proceeds  of  the  soil  are  divided 
between  the  occupant-labourer  (or  ryot), 
the  tax-gatherer  (or  zemindar),  and  the  sov- 
ereign. The  two  former  have  each  an  he- 
reditary and  transferable  interest  in  the 
i  produce.  The  sovereign,  being  absolute, 

generally  exacts  as  much  as  he  can,  with- 
out destroying  the  labourer. 
In  theory,  the  ryot  may  be  considered  as  the 


SUMMARY    OP   PRINCIPLES.  309 

owner  of  land :  in  practice,  it  belongs  to  the  sover- 
eign. 

II.  In  Europe,  the  power  of  the  sovereign  has 
been  limited,  and  the  title  to  land  during 
the  middle  ages  vested  principally  in  lords 
and  barons.     It  was  cultivated  by  serfs  or 
slaves,  of  whom  some  were  saleable  like 
cattle,  and  might  be  severed  from  the  land  ; 
others  were  attached  to  the  soil,  and  could 
only  be  alienated  with  it.     They  had  the 
produce  of  a  small  parcel  of  land  for  their 
own  subsistence,  but  were  obliged  to  la- 
bour, most  of  the  time,  on  land,  all  the  pro- 
duce of  which  went  to  the  proprietor. 

At  present,  this  system  exists  only  in  the  north- 
eastern parts  of  Europe.  Elsewhere  it  has  been 
succeeded  by  free  labour,  and  by  a  tendency  to  the 
system  of  free  ownership  which  exists  in  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

The  disadvantages  are, 

1.  Idleness,  carelessness,  want  of  skill,  and  want 
of  honesty  on  the  part  of  the  labourer. 

2.  Idleness,  prodigality,  and  tyranny  on  the  part 
of  the  master. 

III.  In  the  south  and  west  of  Europe,  at  an 
early  period,  serf  ship  was  replaced  by  the 
plan  of  sharing  the  produce  between  the 
labourer  and  the  cultivator.      The  latter 
(called  metayer)  is  a  voluntary  tenant,  find- 
ing labour  to  co-operate  with  the  owner's 
seed,  tools,  stock,  and  land. 

The  disadvantages  of  this  system  are, 

1.  Mutual  jealousy. 

2.  Oppression  on  the  part  of  the  proprietor. 


810  SUMMARY    OF    PRINCIPLES. 

3.  Waste  of  stock,  &c.,  by  the  tenant. 

4.  Want  of  capital. 

IV.  In  Great  Britain,  Holland,  &c.,  land  is 
generally  cultivated  by  tenants  who  occupy 
it  for  a  considerable  term  of  years  at  a 
stipulated  money-rent.    These  tenants  have 
been  protected  against  the  rapacity  of  land- 
lords  by  law,  and  have  been  aided  by  the 
gradual  fall  in  the  value  of  money. 

The  advantages  of  the  system  consist  in  the  in. 
ducement  held  out  to  the  proprietor  to  be  liberal : 
to  the  occupant  to  be  industrious,  frugal,  and  en- 
terprising. 

The  disadvantages,  in  the  want  of  motive  to  the 
tenant  to  make  permanent  improvements  in  culti- 
vation, and  to  rely  upon  himself. 

V.  In  the  United  States,  land  is  generally  oc- 
cupied and  tilled  by  the  owner.    Thus  cap- 
ital and  labour,  being  in  the  same  hands, 
co-operate  without  jealousy.     The  spirit  of 
enterprise  and  self-reliance  is   cultivated, 
and  the  utmost  motive  is  held  out  to  in- 
dustry, economy,  and  intellectual  improve- 
ment. 

The  same  system  prevails  in  the  British  prov- 
inces and  in  South  America.  That  it  does  not 
produce  in  them  the  same  results,  must  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  inferior  character  of  the  cultivators,  and 
to  the  interference  of  unwise  laws  restraining  in- 
dustry. 


SUMMARY   OF   PRINCIPLES.  311 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CAPITAL. 

1.  Labour  would  be  powerless  unless  aided  by 
the  accumulated  results  of  previous  labour. 

2.  These  results  are  of  three  kinds  : 

I.  Such  as  are  affixed  to  land. 

II.  Such  as  are  incorporated  with  human  abil- 
ity, and  thus  become  personal  endowments. 

III.  Material  and  moveable  products ;  of  which 
a  part  is  reserved  for  gratification,  and  an- 
other part  is  employed  in  reproduction. — ; 
The  latter  only  is  termed  Capital. 

3.  Capital,  then,  is  that  portion  of  the  moveable 
stock  of  a  nation  which  is  intended  to  aid  in  re- 
production. 

4.  Of  this  a  part  may  be  employed  in  reproduc- 
tion by  him  who  originally  produced  it.     A  large 
part,  however,  must  be  sold  or  loaned  to  others. 

5.  If  sold,  the  proprietor  is,  of  course,  entitled  to 
an  equivalent ;  if  loaned,  to  hire  or  remuneration ; 
if  employed  by  himself,  to  revenue.     The  capital 
being  useful,  he  is  entitled  to  be  paid  for  such  use, 
whether  in  his  own  hands  or  in  another's. 

6.  The  great  use  of  capital  is  to  employ  labour. 
Hence  it  has  a  right  to  share  with  labour  the  pro- 
ceeds of  their  joint  agency. 

7.  The  sum  thus  received  for  the  use  of  capital 
is  called,  generally,  profit.     When  loaned  to  an- 
other, however,  it  takes  the  name  of  interest. 

8.  The  right  to  interest  and  profit  is  founded, 
I.  In  right ;  as  we  have  seen. 


312  SUMMARY    OF   PRINCIPLES. 

II.  In  expediency  ;  since  no  one  would  save, 
or,  if  he  did,  would  allow  his  savings  to  take 
a  productive  form,  unless  he  could  be  re- 
munerated. 

9.  This  interest  or  profit  is  paid, 

I.  For  the  use  of  the  capital,  or,  in  other 
words,  as  a  compensation  for  abstaining 
from  its  immediate  consumption. 

II.  For  the  general  risk  of  losing  it. 

III.  For  particular  risks  growing  out  of  the 
character  of  the  business,  borrower,  &c. 

IV.  For  the  time  during  which  it  is  in  use. 

10.  Circulating  capital   is  that   which  is   con- 
sumed and  renewed  within  the  year.     All  other  is 
Jixed. 

11.  The  disposition  to  spend,  by  lessening  cap. 
ital,  diminishes  production ;  the  disposition  to  save, 
by  increasing  it,  tends,  on  the  same  principle,  to 
augment  production.     Hence  the  advantage  to  a 
nation  of  high  profits  and  a  high  rate  of  interest. 

12.  The  passion  for  saving  may  be  carried  too 
far. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

VALITB. 

1.  By  value  here,  we  mean  value  in  exchange, 
or  purchasing  power. 

2.  This  is  relative,  not  real  or  absolute. 

3.  When  the  supply  is  abundant,  and  the  article 
in  demand,  its  value  will  be  proportioned  to  the  la- 
bour of  production. 


SUMMARY    OP   PRINCIPLES.  313 

4.  When  the  supply  is  limited,  value  will  de- 
pend on  the  ratio  between  supply  and  demand. 

5.  There  can  be  no  permanent  supply  unless  the 
market  value  equals  the  costs  of  production*  These 
costs  include, 

I.  Wages  of  all  the  labour  employed,  whether 
in  making,  transporting,  preserving,  or  vend, 
ing  the  article. 

II.  Capital  consumed,  with  profit  on  the  same 
for  the  whole  time. 

III.  Revenue  for  superior  fertility  of  soil,  ad- 
vantages  of  position,  secret  processes,  &c. 

This  last  revenue  is  sometimes  termed  monopo- 
ly,  because  the  right  to  receive  it  is  not  equally  ac- 
cessible to  all. 

This  right,  however,  is  founded, 

I.  In  equity ;  unless  it  be  the  result  of  fraud 
or  force. 

II.  In  expediency ;  since  it  encourages  fore- 
sight, invention,  and  personal  improvement. 

6.  Since  value  depends  on  the  ratio  of  supply 
and  demand,  consider, 

I.  That  DEMAND  varies. 

(a)  If  for  necessaries  and  comforts,  with 

1.  The  number  of  people. 

2.  Their  tastes  and  habits. 

3.  Their  means  of  purchase. 
This  demand  is,  on  the  whole,  steady. 

(b)  If  for  luxuries  and  superfluities,  with  the 
fashion.    Hence  this  demand  is  very  un- 
steady. 

II.  That  SUPPLY  varies  with, 

1.  Seasons. 

2.  Vicissitudes  of  war,  peace,  &c. 


314  SUMMARY    OF    PRINCIPLES:^ 

3.  Amount  of  knowledge  enlisted. 

4.  Current  rate  of  wages  and  profits. 

5.  Monopoly  charges. 

6.  Taxation. 

7.  The  constant  tendency  is  to  equilibrium  be- 
tween demand  and  supply. 

8.  In  regard  to  the  effect  of  different  investments 
of  capital  on  value,  consider, 

I.  That  money  in  hand  is  unproductive. 

II.  That,  invested  in  private  securities,  such 
as  mortgages,  bills,  bank  or  railroad  shares, 
it  is  available,  but  subject  to  risks,  and  not 
constant  in  value. 

III.  That,  invested  in  productive  business,  it 
should  yield  a  gross  profit  sufficient  to  pay 
for  both  use  and  risk,  for  all  labour  of  the 
proprietor  and  others,  for  use  of  buildings 
and  all  expenses. 

IV.  That,  invested   in  personal   knowledge, 
professional  skill,  &c.,  it  is  subject  to  risk 
from  sickness,  death,  want  of  employment, 
&c. 

V.  That,  invested  in  land,  it  is  more  safe,  but 
less  available. 

VI.  That,  invested  in  the  cultivation  of  land 
owned  by  another,  it  must  yield  a  revenue 
sufficient  to  replace  what  is  consumed,  with 
interest,  and  afford  a  fair  profit  on  the  re- 
mainder. 

VII.  That,  invested  in  manufacturing,  mining, 
or  shipping,  it  must  yield  enough  to  replace 
what  is  consumed,  pay  interest  on  the  resi- 
due, remunerate  for  personal  services,  &c. 

9.  When  the  supply  of  goods  so  far  exceeds  the 


SUMMARY   OF   PRINCIPLES.  315 

demand  that  their  price  falls  below  the  costs  of 
production,  there  is  said  to  be  a  glut. 

10.  Gluts  are  general  or  partial.  A  general 
glut  is  usually  owing,  in  the  first  instance,  to  a  sud- 
den rise  in  the  value  of  money.  It  is  aggravated 
by  the  necessity  many  producers  are  under  of  con- 
tinuingvand  even  enlarging  their  operations,  though 
they  sell  at  a  loss. 

It  is  alleviated  by  the  withdrawal  of  other  pro- 
ducers from  the  business,  by  the  new  demand  for 
goods  occasioned  by  cheapness,  and  by  inventions 
which  cheapen  the  production  permanently. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DISTRIBUTION   OF   WEALTH. 

1.  The  two  principal  means  of  increasing  the 
aggregate  wealth  of  a  country  are  Education  and 
Freedom. 

2.  The  same  means  tend  also  to  increase  the 
portion  of  each  individual  who  contributes  to  pro- 
duction. 

3.  The  portions  which  fall  to  different  individu- 
als may  be  equitable,  and  yet  not  equal ;  since,  ow- 
ing to  diversity  of  talent,  industry,  &c.,  one  will 
necessarily  contribute  much  more  to  production 
than  another. 

4.  Even  accidental  advantages,  such  as  that  of 
soil,  position,  &c.,  entitle  their  proprietor  to  cor- 
responding gains,  since, 

1.  It  is  impossible  to  distinguish  what  is  ac- 
cidental from  what  is  the  result  of  effort. 


316  SUMMARY    OF   PRINCIPLES. 

2.  Because  no  one  else  can  prefer  so  good  a 
claim  to  these  gains. 

5.  The  right  of  disposing  of  one's  property  by 
will  is  involved  in  the  very  idea  of  ownership.     It 
also  encourages  industry  and  economy. 

6.  In  some  countries,  as  France,  the  law  abridg- 
es this  natural  right  too  much ;  in  others,  as  Scot- 
land",  it  does  not  limit  it  sufficiently.     Entails  and 
mortmain  are  impolitic,  since,  on  one  hand,  they 
perpetuate  property  independently  of  the  industry 
and  care  of  the  owner,  and,  on  the  other,  deprive 
him  too  far  of  control  over  it. 

7.  The  property  of  intestates  is  given  by  law  to 
their  nearest  kin,  on  the  presumption   that  such 
would  have  been  their  own  will. 

8.  Labourers,  land-owners,  and  capitalists  are 
usually  enumerated  as  the  parties  among  whom 
wealth  distributes.     These  can  hardly  be  distin- 
guished, least  of  all  in  the  United  States.    The  la- 
bourer is  usually,  to  some  extent,  a  capitalist,  and 
vice  versa. 

9.  The  proportion  which  each  receives  can  be 
fixed  justly  only  by  free  contract. 

10.  Law  ought  to  interfere  only  to  protect  per. 
sons  and  property,  and  to  encourage  production. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PRODUCTIVE    INTERESTS. 

1.  These  are   Agriculture,  Manufactures,  and 
Commerce. 

2.  (a)  Agriculture  is  the  employment  of  all  whose 


SUMMARY   OP  PRINCIPLES.  317 

land,  capital,  or  labour  is  applied  to  the  production 
of  food  or  raw  materials. 

(b)  Improvement  has,  until  lately,  been  slow, 
and  ought  to  be  accelerated. 

3.  (a)  Manufactures  include  all  who  apply  labour 
or  capital  to  working  up  raw  materials  for  use. 

(b)  They  call  for  greater  division  of  labour 
than  agriculture. 

(c)  In  Europe,  free  and  chartered  associa- 
tions, called  guilds,  trades,  &c.,  contributed  to  per- 
fect the  arts,  but  not  to  multiply  their  products. 

(d)  The   modern  system   of  manufactures, 
i.  e.,  of  carrying  on  production  in  large  establish, 
ments,  and  with  the  aid  of  inanimate  forces,  has 
contributed  to  multiply  products,  perhaps  less  to 
perfect  them. 

(e)  This  system  has,  in  England,  with  many 
benefits,  brought  some  evils  : 

1.  To  factory  operatives. 

2.  To  agricultural  labourers. 

4.  Commerce  includes  all  who  contribute  by  la- 
bour  or  capital  to  the  free  and  rapid  interchange 
of  products.  g 

(a)  In  proportion  as  they  add  to  the  value  of 
products  to  the  consumer,  by  saving  him  trouble 
and  time,  and  securing  him  against  scarcity,  they 
are  entitled  to  remuneration  in  the  shape  of  wages, 
profits,  or  both. 

(b)  Foreign  and  domestic  trade  are  alike  use- 
ful,  by  multiplying  enjoyments,  and  by  inciting  to 
industry,  invention,  and  economy.     Under  certain 
limitations,  both  ought  to  be  free. 

6.  These  three  productive  interests  are  mutual- 
DD2 


318 


SUMMARY    OF    PRINCIPLES. 


ly  useful  and  dependant,  and  should  therefore  co. 
operate. 

If  agriculture  has  been  most  esteemed,  it  is  not 
because  in  it  labour  is  most  productive,  but  be- 
cause one  of  its  chief  products,  food,  is  pre-emi- 
nently necessary  and  useful. 


THE 


